Nova Iguaçu

Nova Iguaçu is a municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, named after the Iguaçu River that runs through it and empties into Guanabara Bay. It forms part of the Greater Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area and sits northwest of the state capital in the Baixada Fluminense, the northern part of that metropolitan region. Long a citrus-farming district and a bedroom community for Rio de Janeiro, it was once among the most populous cities of Brazil, then shrank when Belford Roxo, Queimados and Mesquita were emancipated from it in the 1990s. It is now the fourth largest municipality in the state by population, with about 795,000 residents, and is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese. Its territory holds part of the Tinguá Biological Reserve, an Atlantic Forest conservation unit.