Named after sugar
The peak's shape reminded the Portuguese of the conical clay moulds used to refine sugar in colonial Brazil.
Urban Tales › Rio de Janeiro › Sugarloaf Mountain
Sugarloaf Mountain: the history, and the cable car that opened in 1912
The granite dome at the mouth of Guanabara Bay, reached by one of the world's oldest cable cars. Here's what you're looking at, and what to listen for when you get there.
Height396 m
Rockgranite
Cable carsince 1912
StopsMorro da Urca, then the summit
Hear the Sugarloaf Mountain story, in the app's voice
A short preview. The full story plays on its own when you walk up to it with Urban Tales.
Three stories most visitors miss
1
2
A cable car in 1912
Engineer Augusto Ferreira Ramos opened the cable car in 1912, the first in Brazil and one of the first in the world.
3
James Bond was here
In Moonraker (1979), Roger Moore's Bond fights the villain Jaws on top of a Sugarloaf cable car.
TipGo up about an hour before sunset and stay on the summit as the city lights come on. With Urban Tales running, the mountain's story plays as you reach the cable car station in Urca.
Nearby landmarks
Sugarloaf Mountain: common questions
How tall is Sugarloaf Mountain?
396 metres above sea level.
When was the Sugarloaf cable car built?
It opened in 1912, the first cable car in Brazil.
Why is it called Sugarloaf?
Its shape resembles the conical moulds used to refine sugar in colonial times.