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For nearly a century Ilha Grande was not a destination: it was a place where people were shut away. Quarantine first, prison later. That history is why the forest here has stayed intact.
Built to quarantine immigrants arriving by sea, the lazaretto operated until 1913. All that remains is the aqueduct, built at the end of the 19th century to carry a thousand litres of water an hour — it is reached by trail T2.
Ilha Tour — local agencyilhatour.com→A penal colony from 1903, then the Cândido Mendes prison in 1940, which held political prisoners — the writers Graciliano Ramos and Orígenes Lessa were held here. Closed in 1994, it was blown up; the village and its museum remain.
Ilha Tour — local agencyilhatour.com→Ilha Grande has been on the World Heritage list since 2019, jointly with the historic centre of Paraty, under two criteria: the interaction between human societies and their environment, and the exceptional biodiversity of the Atlantic forest.
UNESCO — World Heritagewhc.unesco.org→