[2] It neighbors the neighborhoods Méier, Vila Isabel, Lins de Vasconcelos, Sampaio, Jacaré, Cachambi and Grajaú.

It is part of a region called the Grande Méier encompassing the neighborhoods of the Abolição, Água Santa, Cachambi, Encantado, Engenho de Dentro, Jacaré, Lins de Vasconcelos, Méier, Piedade, Pilares, Riachuelo, Rocha, Sampaio, São Francisco Xavier and Todos os Santos.

The degraded landscape and the violence are due to repeated police attacks against residents of the favelas located in its perimeter and surroundings, namely: Matriz, São João, Céu Azul, Rato Molhado, Encontro, in addition to part of the Lins Complex.

The construction, in 1720, of a chapel dedicated to São Miguel and Nossa Senhora da Conceição, in Engenho Novo, boosted the growth of the area.

With the aim of exploiting wood and growing vegetables, the existing forests were devastated, forming large empty spaces that would allow the occupation of the soil.

A significant part of Engenho Novo would be called Quinta dos Duques, due to the acquisition of this region by the family of Duque-Estrada de Itaboraí.

This same family would send, in 1815, an application to Dom João VI asking for the concession of the surrounding vacant lands – currently known as Manguinhos[6] Freed slaves built precarious dwellings in Morro dos Pretos Forros, a region currently covered by the Grajaú-Jacarepaguá highway, expanding occupation of the region.

"On March 29, 1858, at ten thirty minutes in the morning, the first train of the Estrada de Ferro D.Pedro II departed from Campo da Aclamação, in the eyes of the 'happy and jubilant people' that surrounded the station and the road to Queimados.

Wrote historian Elaina Serfaty in the book By the Suburban Train, by the General Archive of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Founded in March 1952, as one of the Externato Sections of the CPII, in the building where the Colégio Independência had operated until then, located on Rua Barão do Bom Retiro, which connects the neighborhood to Grajaú.