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Natural Earth 1:50m · 25 state capitals
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Brazilian State Capitals Quiz

Twenty-five state capitals on a flat map of Brazil, from Manaus on the Amazon to Porto Alegre in the south. Each card names a city — click the state it is the capital of, or drag the card onto it. Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo carry the names of their states, so those two stay locked under their flags. Three tries per card; two flags, two hints and two skips are free for the round.

Read the capital on the card, then click its state or drag the card onto it. Flag turns the card into that state's flag, Hint opens all three facts about it; after three misses, or Skip, the map places it for you. Scroll or pinch to zoom in.

All 25 capitals and their states, the flags explained, more maps ↓

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Brazilian State Capitals Quiz

Twenty-five Brazilian state capitals on a flat map of Brazil: read the city on the card and click its state. Three tries each.

Capitals built to order, from Teresina to Palmas

Brazil has a habit of building its capitals. Teresina was laid out in 1852 to replace Oeiras and named after the Empress Teresa Cristina; it is still the only capital of the Northeast that does not stand on the coast. Aracaju followed in 1855, a planned grid by the sea to replace São Cristóvão. Belo Horizonte was inaugurated in 1897 to take over from Ouro Preto, and Goiânia was begun in 1933 and took the capital of Goiás from the colonial city of Goiás in 1937. Brasília, opened in April 1960 to the plan of Lúcio Costa with buildings by Oscar Niemeyer, moved the national capital inland from Rio de Janeiro. The youngest is Palmas, founded in 1989 for the new state of Tocantins and its capital from the first day of 1990.

Islands, the Equator and the end of the road

Three capitals stand on islands. São Luís, founded by the French in 1612 as Saint-Louis, is the only Brazilian capital of French foundation; Vitória fills a small island in a bay; Florianópolis sits on Santa Catarina Island and was called Desterro until 1894, when it was renamed after President Floriano Peixoto. Those last two are also the capitals that are not their state's largest city: Vila Velha and Serra have outgrown Vitória, and Joinville has outgrown Florianópolis. Macapá lies on the Equator and no road connects it to any other state; Boa Vista, further north, is the only state capital entirely in the northern hemisphere. Manaus stands on the Rio Negro just above its meeting with the Solimões; Porto Velho began as the construction camp of the Madeira-Mamoré railway and became a capital in 1943, when the territory later named Rondônia was created.

Old ports, plain names and easy mistakes

Salvador was the first capital of Brazil, from 1549 to 1763; Recife was the seat of Dutch Brazil from 1630 to 1654; Fortaleza is named after a fort the Dutch built in 1649 and the Portuguese took back; Natal means Christmas and was founded on 25 December 1599; João Pessoa, called Parahyba until 1930, took the name of the governor whose murder is written into the state flag, and holds the easternmost point of the Americas. Many of the rest are plain words: Belém is Bethlehem, Vitória is victory, Porto Alegre is merry port, Belo Horizonte is beautiful horizon and Porto Velho is old port. The cards that catch players are the pairs: Porto Alegre in the far south against Porto Velho in the north-west; Cuiabá for Mato Grosso against Campo Grande for Mato Grosso do Sul; and the three M's, Manaus in Amazonas, Macapá in Amapá and Maceió in Alagoas, where the state name is the clue in the first two and no help at all in the third.

All 25 capitals and their states

25 capitals are in the deck, listed in alphabetical order by city, each with its state. Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are on the map but not in the deck.

  1. AracajuSergipe
  2. BelémPará
  3. Belo HorizonteMinas Gerais
  4. Boa VistaRoraima
  5. BrasíliaFederal District
  6. Campo GrandeMato Grosso do Sul
  7. CuiabáMato Grosso
  8. CuritibaParaná
  9. FlorianópolisSanta Catarina
  10. FortalezaCeará
  11. GoiâniaGoiás
  12. João PessoaParaíba
  13. MacapáAmapá
  14. MaceióAlagoas
  15. ManausAmazonas
  16. NatalRio Grande do Norte
  17. PalmasTocantins
  18. Porto AlegreRio Grande do Sul
  19. Porto VelhoRondônia
  20. RecifePernambuco
  21. Rio BrancoAcre
  22. SalvadorBahia
  23. São LuísMaranhão
  24. TeresinaPiauí
  25. VitóriaEspírito Santo

Questions about the capitals

Which Brazilian state capitals are not the largest city of their state?

Two in this deck. Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, is smaller than both Serra and Vila Velha in its own metropolitan area, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina, is smaller than Joinville in the north of the state. Everywhere else, from Manaus to Porto Alegre, the capital is also the biggest city by a clear margin.

Which state capital lies on the Equator?

Macapá, the capital of Amapá. The line runs through the city and is marked by the Marco Zero monument; the football stadium beside it is said to be laid out so that the halfway line falls on the Equator. Boa Vista in Roraima is the only capital that lies wholly in the northern hemisphere; every other one is south of the line.

Which Brazilian capitals were purpose-built?

Six of the twenty-seven: Teresina in 1852, Aracaju in 1855, Belo Horizonte in 1897, Goiânia in the 1930s, Brasília in 1960 and Palmas in 1989. Each replaced an older seat, Oeiras, São Cristóvão, Ouro Preto, the city of Goiás, Rio de Janeiro and, for the new state of Tocantins, a provisional capital at Miracema. All six are cards in the deck.

More maps

Flags of the same map: Brazilian states. Other maps: US state capitals, European capitals, Asian capitals, Capitals of the Americas, African capitals, French regional capitals, Spanish regional capitals, Italian regional capitals, German state capitals, Canadian provincial capitals. All 235 flags of the world with their capitals: Flags of the world · all modes.