Campos dos Goytacazes is a municipality and city located in the northern area of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, with a population of 463,545 inhabitants. Its area is 4,031.910 Sq.km, which makes it the largest municipality in the state and its elevation is 14 m. Its name comes from the geographical characteristic of the region, very flat with fields (campos in Portuguese) and from the Goytacazes Indians, which inhabited the region. Campos, as the city is usually known, is a macro region of the Northern Fluminense, and is a micro region of Campos dos Goytacazes. The city has a tropical climate.
Colonization of the area started in the 16th century, and the village of Sao Salvador de Campos de Goytacazes was founded on May 29, 1677. On March 28, 1835 the village was promoted to city status.
The city's distance to Rio de Janeiro city, which is the capital of the state, is 286 kilometres (178 mi). BR-101 is the access highway of the city of Campos. Regular air services are operated from its airport Bartolomeu Lysandro. It is the easternmost municipality in Rio de Janeiro.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Campos was the see of Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer, nicknamed "The Lion of Campos", who was one of the bishops who opposed the Vatican II reforms and who teamed with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of Dakar to consecrate four independent bishops in Econe, Switzerland, 1991. Nowadays there are in Campos two Roman Catholic jurisdictions: a Diocese, whose Bishop is Monsignor Roberto Gomes Guimaraes and the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, whose Apostolic Administrator is Monsignor Fernando Areas Rifan