Situated on the western bank of the Branco River, the city lies 220 km (140 mi) from Brazil's border with Venezuela.

Business also takes place between Boa Vista and with the cities of Lethem, in Guyana and Santa Elena de Uairén, in Venezuela.

It was planned by the architect Darci Aleixo Derenusson who based his design for the city on one that is similar to that of Paris, France.

The São Joaquim do Rio Branco Fort, founded in 1775, is located on the banks of the Uraricoera River about 32 km from the capital and is considered to be of great importance to the region.

In 1943, during the middle of World War II, Boa Vista became the capital of the recently created Federal Territory of Rio Branco.

Later, machine-based mining was prohibited (because of the resulting damage to the landscape), which ended up hindering the economy of the state and the municipality.

During these fifteen days, there are bonfires, fireworks, and folk dancing in the streets (step names are in French, which shows the mutual influences between court life and peasant culture in the 17th, 18th, and 19th-century Europe).

[citation needed] The Civic Center, built in the form of an opened fan, starts from the banks of the Rio Branco.

From the Civic Center runs a system of 16 avenues, with inspiration drawn from Paris, France, Belo Horizonte, and Goiânia, Brazil.

Immigrants were attracted to this city due to employment opportunities generated by public service jobs for Brazilians.

Ethnic groups found in Boa Vista include: Amerindians, Portuguese, Africans, Germans, Venezuelans, Guyanese and Lebanese.

The federal government has started a project to link Boa Vista by road to Manaus and then by extension to the major centers of Brazil, by asphalting the BR-174 and building several bridges in the Amazon forest, allowing a direct road link to Manaus and then on over the BR-319 to the central regions of Brazil.