The Valongo Observatory is an academic unit of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), associated with the Center of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (CCMN).
The Observatory has its roots in the Astronomical Observatory of the Polytechnic School, founded in 1881 to provide practical classes in Astronomy and Geodesy to students of the Polytechnic School and to aspirants of the Naval Academy. In the 1920s, it was transferred to the Morro da Conceição and named the Observatory of Valongo Hill. On the land on which it was built once stood the Valongo Farm, a property of the Costa Barros family, which, before Abolition in 1888, operated as a place to fatten up slaves for sale.
With the university reforms of 1967, during the military regime, the Observatory was incorporated into UFRJ.