Belford Roxo (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈbɛwfɔʁ ˈʁoʃu]) is a city in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

[2] Belford Roxo is one of the less prosperous cities in the state, due to its low GDP and relatively large population.

Currently the municipality is the seventh most populous of Rio de Janeiro, with 479,386 inhabitants, according to IBGE estimates for 2014, and has the 14th largest state GDP, with R$3,539,442,000 thousand.

A shrine to St. Anthony was built on a hillside 750 meters from the Sarapuí river bank, near the site established for port activities.

For over two hundred years, the land remained, by hereditary succession, under the control of the heirs of Salvador de Sá, the Vasques Correia family.

In the middle of that eighteenth century, the lands of the San Antonio sugar mill again be dismembered for the formation of new devices: the Brejo and Sarapuí.

In 1767, in a topographic map of the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, made by Manuel Vieira Lion, appears clearly in this region the ingenuity of Brejo.

In 1851, the Brant Boiler family sold their farm to the Commander Manuel José Coelho da Rocha.

[citation needed] The city is located in the Hydrographic Region 5 of the State of Rio de Janeiro, covering the basins of the rivers that are born on the slopes of Serra do Mar, in the hills and in coastal massifs, flowing into the bay.

Rivers most important city are: Iguaçu, Boots, Sarapuí, Velhas, Outeiro, Silver and maxambomba.

The quality of rivers and Boots Sarapuí, according to CONAMA, are classified as Class 2: are water bodies that can be used for domestic supply, if they are treated conventionally.

With proper care, these waters are also suitable for the protection of aquatic communities, primary contact recreation, fruit plants and irrigation of vegetables, and natural creation and / or intensive species for human consumption.

There is still a wide disparity in social indicators of the municipality and other neighboring localities, revealing a history of abandonment, and regional inequality.