Cosme Velho · Rio de Janeiro

Estação do Trem do Corcovado

The 1884 cog-railway station that anchors Cosme Velho — Brazil's first tourist railway, heritage-listed with its entire line.

Landmark building

About the building

The Cosme Velho station, at Rua Cosme Velho 513, is the departure point of the Corcovado rack railway and the building around which the neighborhood's daily rhythm turns. The railway has run from this spot since 1884, climbing 3.8 km through the Tijuca Forest to the summit where the Christ the Redeemer statue stands.

For residents, the station is both landmark and practical fact: it brings a steady, contained flow of visitors to one address rather than through the residential streets, and it gives Cosme Velho a working piece of imperial-era infrastructure at its center.

Address: Rua Cosme Velho 513, Cosme Velho, Rio de Janeiro

History

Emperor Pedro II authorized the line in 1872 and personally started the inaugural steam locomotive on 9 October 1884, making it Brazil's first railway built for tourism. In 1910 it became the first electrified railway in the country, and in the late 1920s its cars carried the pieces of the Christ the Redeemer statue up the mountain for assembly.

The station and the entire line were heritage-listed by the state institute INEPAC in 1986. The railway has run continuously for over 140 years and remains the classic route up the Corcovado.