Duque de Caxias (; "Duke of Caxias") is a city on Guanabara Bay and part of Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, southeastern Brazil. It is bordered by Rio de Janeiro city to the south. Its population was 924,624 (2020) and its area is 465 km2, making it the second most populous suburb of Rio de Janeiro city. The city is the third most populous in Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area, and also the third most populous city in Rio de Janeiro state. The current mayor is Washington Reis. It is named after Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias, who was born there in 1803. The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Duque de Caxias. Its important industries are chemicals and oil refining. Duque de Caxias Futebol Clube is the local football team of the city. The club plays their home matches at Estádio Romário de Souza Faria, which has a maximum capacity of 10,000 people. Estádio De Los Larios, located in the district of Xerém, has a maximum capacity of 11,000 people and it is the home ground of Esporte Clube Tigres do Brasil. History Monarchy The settlement of the region dates back to the 16th century, to the establishment of the Captaincy of São Vicente. In 1568, Brás Cubas, provider of the captaincies of São Vicente and Santo Amaro, received, in donation of sesmaria, 3,000 fathoms of tested land to the sea and 9,000 fathoms of bottom lands to the Meriti River, cutting the paving stone of the village of Jacutinga. Another of the recipients was Cristóvão Monteiro, who gained lands on the banks of the Iguaçu River. The economic activity that gave rise to the occupation of the place was the cultivation of sugarcane. Corn, beans and rice have also become important ancillary products during this period. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the administrative division of Iguaçu followed ecclesiastical criteria, that is, the church assumed religious and legal administration over the parishes. Thus, Pilar, Meriti, Estrela and Jacutinga, areas that currently occupy part of the territory of Duque de Caxias, belonged to Iguaçu. The region became an important point of passage for riches from the interior: the gold of Minas Gerais, discovered at the time of crisis of the sugar plantation and the coffee of the Paraíba Valley, which represented about 70% of the entire Brazilian economy at the time.