A brief history about Petrópolis
In 1845, Emperor Dom Pedro II started the construction of the palace which gave rise to the city of Petrópolis. It was the Emperor himself who commissioned Petrópolis and gave the city its name. The original project, by Júlio Frederico Koeler, was followed and completed two years later by the architects Joaquim Cândido Guilhobel and José Maria Jacinto Rebelo.
With the guidance of the emperor himself, the gardens were designed by Jean-Baptiste Binot and contained rare species of flora from five continents. Over the 165 years of its existence, the Palace served as a summer residence and educational establishment until it became the Imperial Museum in 1943.