Welcome to Petropolis! This city is only an hour and a half from Rio, making it
the perfect day trip. It's the Imperial City of Brazil, known as the one
time stomping ground of don pedro ii the former emperor of Brazil there's a
number of royal exhibits beautiful grounds and even the Bauernfest which
is a German festival. From Rio, we drive inland into the mountainside known for
its cool climate the town's name means city of Peter and honors Pedro II
the last emperor of Brazil who came here to escape the Rio heat
this region has a significant German population and many of the houses are
done in half timbered style. We are in the first chocolate store after picking
up some delicious chocolate it's time to head to Petropolis his most significant
Monument the Imperial Palace so how did the royal family end up here let's take
a look back into history during the 1800s Brazil was a colony of Portugal
the wealthiest in fact they were using the land to export gold Brazil wood and
other goods in 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars, the French invaded and
occupied Portugal only to find that the royal family had fled to Brazil using
the Portuguese fleet. The royal family and the entire court of fifteen thousand
people moved from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 1808 which became the capital
of Portugal for the next 13 years. The only problem is the weather in Rio was
too hot so they built a summer palace here in Petrópolis.
The country this city is and it's built to look like St. Petersburg so as you
can see a reinforced palace very interesting landscape
Portuguese grandmother is Spanish father Portuguese mother Austria so right
outside of the palace we have the gardens with a lot of the indigenous
plants of Brazil so I feel like I'm in another country already this has serious
Vienna vibes right here I feel like I'm at the Schonbrunn Palace the tropical
version because there's palm trees but it is really beautiful and really
these are the carriages that took the royal family here and then here is the
train this tree right in the center is the heart of palm they it's a very
popular dish here very popular side dish this is the Brazil tree inside it is red
and they used it for dyes and they also used the wood that's where the country
gets its name because they were mainly exporting that from here so this is the
jackfruit and you might wonder why is the
jackfruit here? It was brought over from Goa in India which was a Portuguese
settlement this one right here is where they get the ice ie berries from it
turns pink right there acai is very very popular here in Brazil walking around
the town of petrópolis we noticed the German flag everywhere and it's because
of the Bauernfest or the German settlers party which is held from June
14th to 30th top timbered houses in here inspired by Germany because the
population is very German
we're eating here for lunch.
we visit the Cathedral of Petropolis which is the resting place of the last
emperor of Brazil dom pedro ii inside the church we meet some local
schoolchildren who are visiting as part of a field trip
German sausage it feels like we've been transported to Germany as we enter the
part of town with the bow and fest and the Bohemia brewery guys this is where
they make bulimia the German immigrants came here and they brought beer and
Bohemia is the first beer of Brazil
right now we are tasting Bohemia here
and every June they have the German festival to celebrate their German
heritage
or as I'm saying Germany will be represents 3.8 percent of the country's
GDP and in here it tells the story of how beer came to Brazil
it says here that petropolis the planned city was founded by don pedro ii it's
the first planned city of Brazil and the modern world in 1843 there's all the
ingredients used to make beer this is one of the main ingredients of beer the
US and Germany are almost tied here for hops. Son iguales. We stepped inside the
brewery right here and this is where they make the Bohemia beer.
How do you say cheers in Portuguese? Saúde. Saúde? Saúde. We are about to try the English pale ale
which has more hops which makes it more fruity, darker color, and more alcohol.
5.8% So this is called Bauernfest here in Petrópolis, this is a celebration of the German culture
and German heritage look at this every single stall has half-timber houses
this is not Germany this is still Brazil
this greenhouse
Biergarten every June they have the brown fest look
at this like a big party in the streets I feel like I'm in Germany right now of
all of the German foods here they have a strudel and they have the currywurst
what an awesome event this is you guys. If you're interested in coming to an
Oktoberfest like event in June come here to Petropolis what happened to the beer
well I met this blonde woman that young woman that she sorta looked like Heidi
and she was from German ancestors who immigrated here in the 1850s and she was
promoting the beer industry here in petrópolis
we are seriously injuring right now Germany meets Brazil
we're on the bus now Mike what did you buy? Honey bread. Honey bread...
Bohemia beers
another beer. A shirt that says all of the different beers.
Heading back to Rio right now, on this hill you can see the church is all lit up.
We catch the sunset views in
the city all lit up at night on our way back to Rio. We hope that you enjoyed
this vlog of petropolis and get a chance to visit very soon it's one of the most
historically rich and unique places that we visited in Brazil and if you liked
this video hit the thumbs up on and subscribe because coming up next we're
exploring Rio de Janeiro!