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Considered the birthplace of hip hop and home to the New York Yankees, the Bronx has a reputation that precedes itself in urban and sporting cultures. It’s the northernmost of New York City’s five boroughs, divided into a hilly western strip beside Manhattan and a flat eastern section along the Bronx River.

The exact birthplace of hip hop is considered 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, a nondescript high-rise in the heart of the Bronx where DJ Kool Herc first originated the break-beat, but today the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective is the best place to discover what the current generation of poetic artists are creating. Literary enthusiasts should head to Edgar Allen Poe’s cottage where the writer spent the last years of his life, while the borough’s oldest building, Frederick Van Cortlandt House, stands in the leafy park of the same name. The Bronx is also home to the magnificent New York Botanic Gardens and one of the world’s most famous zoos, the Bronx Zoo, where more than 4000 animals reside. Discover the European flavours of New York’s original Little Italy, then step into the New England atmosphere of City Island, renowned for its seafood restaurants and maritime culture. Art enthusiasts can wander the 20th century American art collection at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, while baseball lovers can witness one of the most famous sporting teams in the world at Yankee Stadium. While the Bronx was once considered a run-down borough with a high crime rate, recent developments have transformed it into a centre for urban culture with a distinct edge.

The Bronx is well served by New York City’s subway system, with six different lines traversing the borough and around 70 stations. There’s also two railroad commuter lines, the Harlem and Hudson lines, which pass through, as well as plenty of bus services to get visitors between the borough’s sights.

While the area now known as the Bronx was originally inhabited by the Lenape Native American people, it was Swedish-born Jonas Bronck who established the first European settlement here in 1639 and from whom the borough eventually took its name. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Bronx saw an influx of African American migrants from the southern states and Caribbean, together with Europeans from Ireland, Germany and Italy, resulting in the diverse neighbourhood seen today.