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Porto Velho is the capital of Rondônia in Brazil's northwestern Amazon, a river city on the east bank of the Madeira River famous for the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, the legendary Devil's Railroad of the rubber boom. The town grew up after 1907 around the railway's river terminus, and today it is the largest state capital in Brazil by area.
The railway was built between 1907 and 1912 to carry Bolivian rubber around the rapids of the Madeira, and thousands of workers died of disease along its 366 kilometres. Its old yard by the river now holds a museum of locomotives and workshops, while three metal water tanks of the railway era became the symbol of the city. Nearby stand the cathedral and the former government palace, now a museum of Rondônia's history.
Life in Porto Velho still turns towards the river. Locals gather on the waterfront for sunsets over the Madeira, and the vast Santo Antônio hydroelectric dam stands just upstream. The Palácio das Artes is the largest theatre in Brazil's North Region.
The Madeira-Mamoré Railway Museum stands on the railway square by the Madeira River in Porto Velho. Its collection fills a 1912 warehouse prefabricated in the United States, beside the workshops and turntable of the line called the Devil's Railroad for the many lives it cost.
The Madeira-Mamoré Railway Yard on the Porto Velho waterfront was the starting point of the railway, built from 1907 to 1912 to run 366 kilometres to Guajará-Mirim. Its 1912 brick station, warehouses and workshops stand by the Madeira River, and the yard was listed as heritage in 2018.
The Três Caixas d'Água, also called the Três Marias, are three cylindrical metal water tanks in their own square in central Porto Velho. Made by Chicago Bridge & Iron Works and shipped in metal sections from the United States, they are symbols of the city and appear on its flag.
The Coronel Church is a Baldwin steam locomotive in Porto Velho, the first to run in northern Brazil. Brought in 1878 by the P&T Collins company, it derailed on its opening run and was left at Santo Antônio, then was repaired in 1912 and returned to service on the Madeira-Mamoré Railway.
The Catedral Sagrado Coração de Jesus is the Catholic cathedral of Porto Velho. Its foundation stone was laid in 1917, but building only began in earnest in 1927. The church mixes a Romanesque-style exterior with a Gothic-style interior and stands on the eastern edge of the Caiari district.
The Museu da Memória Rondoniense is a museum of Rondônia's history in the Palácio Getúlio Vargas in central Porto Velho, the former seat of the state government. The palace became the museum after the government moved to its new headquarters, the Palácio Rio Madeira, opened in December 2015.
The Capela de Santo Antônio de Pádua is a small chapel by the Madeira River at Santo Antônio, about 7 kilometres upstream from central Porto Velho. The first attempts to build the Madeira-Mamoré Railway started from this riverside village in the 1870s, before Porto Velho became its terminus in 1907.
The Teatro Estadual Palácio das Artes Rondônia is a state theatre on Avenida Presidente Dutra in Porto Velho, begun in 1998 and opened in 2014. Its main hall seats about 1,005 people, making it the largest theatre in Brazil's North Region, and the smaller Teatro Guaporé seats 235.
The Madeira River flows past Porto Velho and is one of the main tributaries of the Amazon. It rises as the Beni River in the Bolivian Andes and takes its name, meaning wood, from the logs its floods carry out of the forest, and from Porto Velho downstream it is a busy waterway.
The Santo Antônio Dam is a hydroelectric plant on the Madeira River in Porto Velho, near the old riverside village of Santo Antônio. Built from 2008 to 2016, it has 50 bulb turbines with a total capacity of about 3,568 megawatts, making it the fifth-largest hydroelectric plant in Brazil.
The Rio Madeira Bridge carries the BR-319 highway across the Madeira River at Porto Velho, the road link between Rondônia and the state of Amazonas. The BR-319 runs almost 800 kilometres from Porto Velho to Manaus, and the long bridge gives wide views over the river and the city.
The Lago do Cuniã Extractive Reserve is a federal protected area of Amazon rainforest in the municipality of Porto Velho, created in 1999 and now covering about 75,877 hectares. Some 400 people in 50 families live there, mostly by fishing, and gather Brazil nuts and açaí.
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Log in to add photosPhoto: MTur Destinos, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
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