São Pedro de Alcântara, Santa Catarina is a
municipality in the
state of
Santa Catarina in the
South region Southern Region or South Region may refer to:
* Southern Nigeria
* Southern Region (Boy Scouts of America)
* Southern Region, Bauchi, Nigeria
* South Region, Brazil, an official grouping of states for economic and statistical purposes
* Southern R ...
of
Brazil.
The municipality contains part of the
Rio das Lontras Private Natural Heritage Reserve, a fully protected area of montane rainforest in the
Atlantic Forest
The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...
biome.
German influence
On the first day of March 1829 the first German speaking colony of the state of Santa Catarina was founded, receiving the Portuguese name of ''Colônia São Pedro de Alcântara'', located not too far from the state's capital, ''Desterro'', having its name changed in modern times to
Florianópolis
Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina, in the South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as well as part of the mainland. It has a populat ...
. Initially the colony did not experience great success when compared to other similar federal, state, or private enterprises, but with time it got incorporated into Florianópolis, a modern and thriving Brazilian metropolitan area. The state of Santa Catarina has a highest percentage of German descent people compared to all other Brazilian states; however, the state of Rio Grande do Sul, just south of it, has by far the highest number of German-Brazilians in total numbers, with around one quarter of its inhabitants speaking German, more often than not a dialect, at home or amongst locals.
See also
*
List of municipalities in Santa Catarina
*
São Leopoldo, in the neighboring state of
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...
, founded in 1824 by the first pioneer German speaking families to settle permanently in Brazil, is officially considered the cradle of German-Brazilian culture (see the
Riograndenser Hunsrückisch German language of
South America).
References
Municipalities in Santa Catarina (state)
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