Santa Leopoldina is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in central

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...

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 ...

. Its population was 12,885 (2015) and its area is 718.1 km².

IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information ...

/ref> It is 16 meters above sea level, and is located 44 km from the state capital of Vitória, Brazil, Vitória.

History

Santa Leopoldina was founded in 1856 by around 60 Swiss immigrants who came up the Santa Maria River, closely followed in 1857 by roughly 200 immigrants from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. The old extended version of the name, "Cachoeiro de Santa Leopoldina", was given in 1860 by the emperor Pedro II, in honour of his mother Maria Leopoldina, Archduchess of Austria. During the 19th century the town was, for a period, the biggest commercial centre of the state, but its influence declined after the arrival of roads which took traffic away from the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

, which was then the town's biggest advantage. Santa Maria River was navigable right through to the Atlantic from this point. The first highway (''rodovia'') in the state was built between Santa Leopoldina and Santa Teresa and was completed in 1918, which was extended to Vitória, Brazil, Vitória in 1924. Cashoiero de Santa Leopoldina first became a municipality in 1887 and dropped "Cachoeiro de" (Portuguese for ''

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

of'') from its name in 1943. In 1890 Santa Teresa separated from Santa Leopoldina, and in 1988

Santa Maria de Jetibá Santa Maria de Jetibá is the name of a municipality and of its capital in central Espírito Santo, Southeastern Brazil. It was founded in 1857 by Pomeranian immigrants who arrived through the state capital Vitória by going up the river Santa Ma ...

also separated, leaving a much smaller area under its power.

References

Municipalities in Espírito Santo 1856 establishments in Brazil {{EspiritoSanto-geo-stub