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Rocinha
Neighborhood
Rocinha 1 by Diego Baravelli.jpg
Rocinha is located in Rio de Janeiro
Rocinha
Rocinha
Location in Rio de Janeiro
Rocinha is located in Brazil
Rocinha
Rocinha
Location in Brazil
Country  Brazil
State Rio de Janeiro (RJ)
Municipality/City Rio de Janeiro
Zone South Zone
Administrative Region Rocinha
Area
 • Total 143.72 ha (355.14 acre)
Population
 (2017)
 • Total 69,356 (2,010 census)
Rocinha rio de janeiro panorama 2010
Rocinha as viewed from within Rocinha
1 rocinha night 2014 panorama
Rocinha at night
Rocinha road 2010
A hilly road in Rocinha
1 rocinha aerial pano 2014
Aerial view of Rocinha
1 rocinha favela main road 2014
Top-down view of the main road winding through Rocinha

Rocinha ( little farm) is the largest favela in Brazil, located in Rio de Janeiro's South Zone between the districts of São Conrado and Gávea. Rocinha is built on a steep hillside overlooking Rio de Janeiro, and is located about one kilometre from a nearby beach. Most of the favela is on a very steep hill, with many trees surrounding it. Around 180,000 people live in Rocinha, making it the most populous favela in Brazil.

Although Rocinha is officially classified as a neighbourhood, many still refer to it as a favela. It developed from a shanty town into an urbanized slum. Today, almost all the houses in Rocinha are made from concrete and brick. Some buildings are three and four storeys tall and almost all houses have basic sanitation, plumbing and electricity. Compared to simple shanty towns or slums, Rocinha has a better developed infrastructure and hundreds of businesses such as banks, medicine stores, bus routes, cable television, including locally based channel TV ROC (TV Rocinha), and, at one time, a McDonald's franchise. These factors help classify Rocinha as a favela bairro, or favela neighborhood.

Community

There are a number of community organizations at work in Rocinha, including neighbourhood associations and numerous NGOs and non-profit educational and cultural institutions. Rocinha is home to most of the service workers in Zona Sul (the South Zone of Rio).

In recent years, due to its relative safety in comparison to other favelas, Rocinha has developed tourism-oriented activities such as hostels, nightclubs and guided tours. In September 2017, between 150 and 600 tourists were estimated to visit the slum per day, despite foreign governments' and the Rio police's safety warnings recommending against it. In October 2017, a Spanish tourist died after being shot by the police while visiting Rocinha during a turf war.

In mass media and popular culture

Rocinha by Diego Baravelli

Many celebrities have visited Rocinha, including Mikhail Gorbachev (during the Earth Summit of 1992) and actor Christopher Lambert. Some episodes of the Brazilian television series Cidade dos Homens (City of Men) were filmed there.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Rocinha para niños

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