Pinheiral is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. Its population was 25,364 (2020) and its area is 77 sqkm.

History

The city was named after the São José do Pinheiro coffee plantation, owned by the very rich planter and slave trader José de Souza Breves (1795-1879). This estate, on which about 500 slaves used to work, was "one of the most opulent in Brazil". Nowadays, the descendants of slave plan to transform the Park of the Ruins, only vestige of the plantation and its palace, into a memory centre, including a museum and school of jongo (dance and musical genre of black communities).