Nova Iguaçu (, locally: or , New Iguaçu) is a municipality in Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil. Location The city is named after the Iguaçu River that runs through it and empties into Guanabara Bay (not to be confused with the Iguaçu River in Paraná state, which forms the Iguaçu Falls). It is part of the Greater Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. It was the state's second largest city in population until Mesquita was split off, and now it is the fourth largest behind São Gonçalo, Duque de Caxias and the state capital, Rio de Janeiro. It lies northwest of Rio de Janeiro, in the centre of the northern part of its metropolitan area, Baixada Fluminense. The current mayor is Rogério Lisboa (PR). The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nova Iguaçu. Nova Iguaçu has an estimated population of around 800,000 people. Although not best defined as a commuter town, it is a suburb of Rio de Janeiro under the influence of the capital – to which tens of thousands of workers and students commute daily, or visit regularly for options in culture, entertainment, goods, health care, etc. It is a city of average, lower middle income. There are a few historical and ecotouristical attractions in the municipality. The municipality contains part of the Central Rio de Janeiro Atlantic Forest Mosaic of conservation units, created in 2006. It contains part of the Tinguá Biological Reserve, a strictly protected Atlantic Forest conservation unit created in 1989. It also contains the Jaceruba Environmental Protection Area, created in 2002. The municipality contains part of the Mendanha State Park, created in 2013. History Colonial Brazil Before the Portuguese arrived in Rio de Janeiro (in 1503), the Jacutinga Indians already inhabited the western bank of the Iguaçu River. This Indigenous tribe helped the French when they arrived in the region. Around 1565, after the expulsion of the French from Guanabara Bay, the village of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro was founded. There was at that time intense piracy promoted by French, British and Dutch privateers on the coast of the new Portuguese colony. In 1575, the then governor of the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, Antônio Salema, joined a Portuguese army supported by a troop of Amerindians indoctrinated with the purpose of exterminating the French and Tamoio area that had lasted for twenty years on the eastern coast of