Rio's Beverly Hills, on the cliff.
The Brazilian press calls it the Beverly Hills of Rio — a closed condominium between Barra da Tijuca and São Conrado, shared by the top of Globo's cast list.
"The Beverly Hills of Rio de Janeiro." The phrase travels with Joá everywhere it is written — in Globo, in Caras, in Terra, in the brokers' books. Wedged between Barra da Tijuca and São Conrado on the western arc of the city, Joá is the smallest neighborhood in Rio and, by every measure that matters, its most desired — a closed condominium on a mountain with a single gated access road, twenty-four-hour manned security, a private patrol, and the Atlantic Forest pressing in from three sides.
The roll of residents reads like a decade of Brazilian television. Luciano Huck and Angélica — Brazil's most-watched on-air couple — keep a four-thousand-square-meter estate here. Márcio Garcia's mansion, at the foot of Pedra da Gávea, has been reported as the most expensive private home in the country. Carolina Dieckmann is on the same cliff. So are Preta Gil, Cauã Reymond, and Danielle Winits — neighbors by choice, who chose the one address in Rio the paparazzi cannot reach.
The paradox is the point. Joá sits at the center of Rio's most desirable axis — minutes from the beaches of São Conrado, fifteen from Leblon, twenty-five from Ipanema — yet the neighborhood itself is a ridge of Atlantic Forest draped over the sea: wooded plots on the forest edge, bold architecture signed by some of the country's most quoted architects, and the private cove of Praia da Joatinga, reached on foot through a carved passage in the rock. The city is at your feet. The rainforest is at your door. The gate is between you and everything else.
One address on the crest.
This magazine covers a single cliffside villa in Joá — five suites, three floors, infinity pool, private elevator, and the ocean frontage that makes the neighborhood what it is.