Selaron’s Staircase

The magical tiled stairway that connects the Lapa neighborhood with Santa Teresa was the work of Chilean artist, Jorge Selaron, who spent years hand painting and collecting tiles and affixing them to the steps and surrounds. The 2,000 colored tiles cover 250 steps stretching 125 meters and have appeared in a Fanta commercial, music videos of U2 and Snoop Dogg and Rio’s winning bid for the Olympics. Today, they serve as a memorial to their founder’s vision for a bright spot in a tough neighborhood. From 1990 until 2013, Selaron lived almost day and night on the steps or just next door in his house, drawing tourists from around the globe and chasing away drug dealers, who may have eventually killed him. He was found dead on the stairs in January 2013, but tourists still come to see his monument to his love of the “Marvelous City” of Rio.