Maracanãzinho
Five months of construction in 1954, straight into a World Championship — this arena has never slowed down.
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The smaller sibling of Maracanã Stadium, the Maracanãzinho opened in September 1954 for the Men's Basketball World Championship, originally fitting 25,000. Since then it has hosted Miss Brasil pageants, two consecutive Brazilian basketball world titles (1963 coached by Kanela), the 1960 and 1990 Volleyball World Championship finals, UFC bouts, and Olympic volleyball in 2016. A 2007 Pan American Games renovation added a natural-light dome and trimmed capacity to 11,800.
What to look for
- The dome added in the 2007 Pan American Games renovation, which floods the interior with natural daylight
- The four-sided scoreboard installed during the same 2007 remodel — a major upgrade over the original 1954 fit-out
- The adjacent Maracanã Stadium, visible immediately outside; the two venues share a single sports complex in Rio's north zone
Located in the Maracanã neighborhood in Rio's north zone; check the event calendar before visiting as the arena hosts active volleyball and mixed-event programming year-round.
Maracanãzinho is one of 29 sights worth the detour in Rio de Janeiro, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Rio de Janeiro pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Rio de Janeiro
- Christ the RedeemerArms stretched 28 metres wide at the summit of a 700-metre mountain, face turned east to meet the sunrise every morning.
- Maracanã StadiumOn 16 July 1950, 210,850 people packed this bowl to watch Uruguay beat Brazil 2–1 — the largest crowd ever recorded at a football match, and that record still stands.
- Museu NacionalOne fire in 2018 erased 200 years of collecting — 20 million objects, Brazil's oldest scientific institution, mostly gone overnight.
- Estádio Nilton Santos (Engenhão)The stadium that blew six times its construction budget and then hosted an Olympics.
- Arquivo Nacional (Brazilian National Archives)Brazil's paper memory since 1838 — founded as the Imperial Public Archives before the republic even existed.
- Rio–Niterói BridgeEight kilometres of concrete over open water, built so a bay full of ships and two city skylines could coexist.