Crato is a city of 130,000 inhabitants on the banks of the river Granjeiro in the south of the state of

Ceará Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...

, in the northeast of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It was founded on June 21, 1764 by the

Capuchin friar The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (; postnominal abbr. O.F.M. Cap.) is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of Three " First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant (OFM Obs., now OFM) ...

Carlos Maria de Ferrara. Originally it was a small village in which the population were principally native Kariris, it gained official status as a city on October 17, 1817. The Brazilian city of Crato was named in honor to Crato, a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

town which was founded in the 13th century. The people of Crato credit their city's blossoming to a priest, Padre Cicero, who was outcast from the nearby town of Juazeiro do Norte in the late 1800s and settled in Crato with his various followers thereafter. Various images and statues of the priest can be found around Crato as a sign of appreciation for the priest. Crato is about 550 km from

Fortaleza Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...

, the capital of the state of Ceará. Its county has a surface area of approximately 1,117 km². It is at an altitude of 426m, . Its population of 110,000 makes it the sixth-largest city in Ceará. The economy is a mix of trading and agriculture; , a small industrial park is expanding. The region is rich in minerals, especially

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

. Crato has its Roman Catholic Diocese which has contributed to the educational system of the region with schools in the past. For the most recent data (2007) the city has 5.3 in the classification of the development index of basic education (for primary education, IDEB) - this index ranges from 0 to 10. The national average is 3.8 and that of the state of Ceará is 6.1 (the fourth place in the country). In higher education, in addition to hosting campuses at the Federal University of Cariri (UFCA) and the Federal Institute of Technological Education (IFCE), the city is home to the state institution Universidade Regional do Cariri (URCA), which has around 10,000 students. Several private higher education institutions are active in the city. The city is surrounded by a tropical wood in the Araripe basin (Serra do Araripe) near the border of the state of

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...

. the climate is generally mild, with somewhat more rain than is typical of the region. Crato is connected to the nearby city of

Juazeiro do Norte Juazeiro do Norte is a city in the state of Ceará state in northeastern Brazil. It is located 491 km south of the state capital Fortaleza in the semiarid sertão. The municipality has a population of 276,264 (2020 official estimate) and cov ...

by a

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

line called the

Cariri Metro Cariri Metro ( pt, Metrô do Cariri, though it is technically not a metro system; also known as pt, VLT do Cariri) is a , nine station diesel commuter rail line (sometimes referred to as a light rail (VLT) line) in the Cariri region of southern ...

that opened in 2009–2010.

References

External link

* Municipalities in Ceará 1764 establishments in the Portuguese Empire {{Ceará-geo-stub

See also

References

External link