Travessa do Comercio
Travessa do Comercio
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The area
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Neighborhood: Centro
Downtown Rio is the place where this city was born. With modern skyscrapers sharing space with historical buildings and landmarks, this neighbourhood is living proof that the old and the new can live together harmoniously. As you would expect, downtown is where all major companies house their offices. However, the region isn’t restricted to businesses. Gems such like the “Paço Imperial,” which is a cultural centre that used to serve as a residence for governors of Brazil, can be found here. Pedra do Sal, a Monday night street party, is also in this neighbourhood. This landmark is the birthplace of samba and is famous for its “roda de sambas” (“dance circles”). Stop in for one and get closer to discovering where Brazilian happiness comes from.
How to get there
- Carioca • 9 min walk
- Uruguai • 9 min walk
Best nearby
Restaurants
1,844 within 3 miles
Attractions
630 within 6 miles
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.0
33 reviews
Excellent
10
Very good
19
Average
4
Poor
0
Terrible
0
PBPG
Yorkshire, UK8,453 contributions
Dec 2022
An old street for the commercial are preserved for the future, well the frontages are anyway. Gives a great impression of what it all must have been like all those years ago. Carmen Miranda used to live at number 11
Written December 17, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Vincent M
New Orleans, LA2,256 contributions
Jun 2015 • Solo
Old Rio--Rio Antigo--is gone with the wind. While individual buildings dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries are still scattered hither and yon, they are coexisting loners within a high-rise jungle. There are virtually no neighborhoods where you can walk through historic old streets and feel you have traveled back in time, the way you can in old Salvador de Bahia. One gets the distinct impression that historical preservation has been a criminal offense in this city for the last hundred years.
The chief exception to this—the sole surviving significant group of buildings—is a small quarter of only a few lanes, bounded by Praca XV to the south, Rue Primeiro de Marco to the west, and Avenida Pres. Vargas to the east. Three lanes in particular remain essentially untouched by the 20th or 21st centuries: Travessa do Comercio, Rua Visconde de Itaborai and Rua do Ouvidor (though R. do Mercado isn't bad). As the grandest buildings on the most important avenues were leveled and successively replaced with newer, higher, buildings in the 1920s, 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s, these relatively humble back alleys survived simply because they were too low-rent to merit the investment in demolishing them. Now, well into the 21st century, suddenly, “oh, those are rather scenic and quaint; do you suppose we ought to keep them?” The short answer is: “Of course you should!” But that answer comes way too late to save the cidade maravilhosa.
The cobble-stoned lane heading into this rabbit warren from the Arco do Teles is Commerce Lane (see Travessa do Comercio photo). Inside, the lanes are so narrow that they block the high-rises from view, though one does occasionally pop up (see Highrise Rearing Ugly Head photo). Coming from New Orleans, I noticed how some buildings looked as if they could have come straight out of our French Quarter (see Rio Antigo vs Vieux Carre photos 1 and 2). This area is packed with old-time bars and eateries; if you come before lunchtime, you’ll see restauranteurs putting out tables and bracing for the feeding frenzy (see Gearing Up for Customers photos). Best of all, this time-capsule quarter is full of wonderful things to discover, such as:
The oldest restaurant in the city, Rio Minho, a Portuguese tavern at Rua de Ouvidor 10 that’s been serving them up for over 130 years.
The Barowue 260-year old Traders’ Church, at Rua do Ouvidor 33, with a winged statue in its sacristy—I don’t mean winged like an angel; I mean winged by an artillery shell when the entire Brazilian navy mutinied in 1893 and the battleship Aquidaba lobbed a few rounds into town from Guanabara Bay to emphasize their impatience with the army junta, It'll be OK, it's only a flesh wound (see Trader’s Church photo), and
The childhood home of Maria Miranda da Cunha at Travessa de Comercio 13. Rio’s also got an entire museum dedicated to her in Flamengo: the Museu Carmen Miranda.
So, you might think, “that’s great that a historical collection of a few back alleys is still around.” Well, yes, but that kind of misses the point. The big picture is that the rest of the cidade maravilhosa has been wiped off the face of the earth for all time. What made Rio the “marvelous city”? Two things: it was an architecturally beautiful city, sitting on top of some of the most spectacular topography of anyplace on earth. Other spectacularly beautiful ports did the same thing: they modernized, demolished their wonderful old architecture, built high-rises, and ruined their unique beauty, as well as screwing up the view. Hong Kong, Valparaiso, and San Francisco all did it, the latter two both helped in the process by major earthquakes in 1906. But even though those three were on splendid heights overlooking the water, I suspect none of them were anywhere near as marvelous as Rio, because (a) Rio’s topography was far more spectacular than theirs, and (b) old Rio’s architecture was far more beautiful. If you could transplant Rome or Florence onto Vancouver Canada or Sydney Australia, that might approach how marvelous Rio Antigo was. Now a few alleys remain, but Rio’s grand boulevards all look like downtown Chicago while blocking the view of Pao de Acucar and Corcovado. If you wander from Travessa de Comercio to the adjacent Primerio de Marco, you can only wonder: how did this former grand boulevard look at the turn of the 19th century? Why wonder? I’ll show you. The Venetian artist Gustavo Dall’Ara did a painting of it just over a century ago. Here’s an example of WHY Rio was the cidade maravilhosa back then, and what modern visitors like us are missing (see Old Primeiro de Marco photo; for another example of the view then vs now, see my TripAdvisor review of Sao Francisco da Penitencia).
The chief exception to this—the sole surviving significant group of buildings—is a small quarter of only a few lanes, bounded by Praca XV to the south, Rue Primeiro de Marco to the west, and Avenida Pres. Vargas to the east. Three lanes in particular remain essentially untouched by the 20th or 21st centuries: Travessa do Comercio, Rua Visconde de Itaborai and Rua do Ouvidor (though R. do Mercado isn't bad). As the grandest buildings on the most important avenues were leveled and successively replaced with newer, higher, buildings in the 1920s, 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s, these relatively humble back alleys survived simply because they were too low-rent to merit the investment in demolishing them. Now, well into the 21st century, suddenly, “oh, those are rather scenic and quaint; do you suppose we ought to keep them?” The short answer is: “Of course you should!” But that answer comes way too late to save the cidade maravilhosa.
The cobble-stoned lane heading into this rabbit warren from the Arco do Teles is Commerce Lane (see Travessa do Comercio photo). Inside, the lanes are so narrow that they block the high-rises from view, though one does occasionally pop up (see Highrise Rearing Ugly Head photo). Coming from New Orleans, I noticed how some buildings looked as if they could have come straight out of our French Quarter (see Rio Antigo vs Vieux Carre photos 1 and 2). This area is packed with old-time bars and eateries; if you come before lunchtime, you’ll see restauranteurs putting out tables and bracing for the feeding frenzy (see Gearing Up for Customers photos). Best of all, this time-capsule quarter is full of wonderful things to discover, such as:
The oldest restaurant in the city, Rio Minho, a Portuguese tavern at Rua de Ouvidor 10 that’s been serving them up for over 130 years.
The Barowue 260-year old Traders’ Church, at Rua do Ouvidor 33, with a winged statue in its sacristy—I don’t mean winged like an angel; I mean winged by an artillery shell when the entire Brazilian navy mutinied in 1893 and the battleship Aquidaba lobbed a few rounds into town from Guanabara Bay to emphasize their impatience with the army junta, It'll be OK, it's only a flesh wound (see Trader’s Church photo), and
The childhood home of Maria Miranda da Cunha at Travessa de Comercio 13. Rio’s also got an entire museum dedicated to her in Flamengo: the Museu Carmen Miranda.
So, you might think, “that’s great that a historical collection of a few back alleys is still around.” Well, yes, but that kind of misses the point. The big picture is that the rest of the cidade maravilhosa has been wiped off the face of the earth for all time. What made Rio the “marvelous city”? Two things: it was an architecturally beautiful city, sitting on top of some of the most spectacular topography of anyplace on earth. Other spectacularly beautiful ports did the same thing: they modernized, demolished their wonderful old architecture, built high-rises, and ruined their unique beauty, as well as screwing up the view. Hong Kong, Valparaiso, and San Francisco all did it, the latter two both helped in the process by major earthquakes in 1906. But even though those three were on splendid heights overlooking the water, I suspect none of them were anywhere near as marvelous as Rio, because (a) Rio’s topography was far more spectacular than theirs, and (b) old Rio’s architecture was far more beautiful. If you could transplant Rome or Florence onto Vancouver Canada or Sydney Australia, that might approach how marvelous Rio Antigo was. Now a few alleys remain, but Rio’s grand boulevards all look like downtown Chicago while blocking the view of Pao de Acucar and Corcovado. If you wander from Travessa de Comercio to the adjacent Primerio de Marco, you can only wonder: how did this former grand boulevard look at the turn of the 19th century? Why wonder? I’ll show you. The Venetian artist Gustavo Dall’Ara did a painting of it just over a century ago. Here’s an example of WHY Rio was the cidade maravilhosa back then, and what modern visitors like us are missing (see Old Primeiro de Marco photo; for another example of the view then vs now, see my TripAdvisor review of Sao Francisco da Penitencia).
Written July 27, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
RayParks
Adelaide, Australia2,862 contributions
Jun 2015 • Solo
After passing under Arco do Teles from Praça XV, I came out into a narrow cobblestone lane called Travessa do Comércio (Trade Lane). The lane was strictly for pedestrians, leading towards the other street called Rua do Ouvidor. It was surrounded by the buildings and houses being rebuilt or renovated according to the specifications of the style in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. So walking on this lane made me feel like going back 100 years.
There was an artistic graffiti depicting the life of African people. There was also a kind of graffiti spoiling the façade of the building. There were quite a few restaurants beginning to open their businesses for the day.
There was an artistic graffiti depicting the life of African people. There was also a kind of graffiti spoiling the façade of the building. There were quite a few restaurants beginning to open their businesses for the day.
Written July 15, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
finesilver
Denver, CO2,193 contributions
Mar 2017 • Business
this is a little side street for pedestrians which is lined with lots of bars and restaurants. The Saturday we were there, there were tons of people just hanging out and drinking and eating. There is a famous Arco there as part of the walk from Praca XV. Carmen Miranda is said to have lived in one of the houses in the area as a young child.
Worth a look if you are nearby and just want to get a local neighborhood flavor of an out of the way spot.
Worth a look if you are nearby and just want to get a local neighborhood flavor of an out of the way spot.
Written March 20, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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