Augusto Pestana is a Brazilian municipality in the 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 ...

. It is located at 28°31′01″S 53°39′01″W, at an altitude of 390 m (1,279 feet). The city is 320 km northwest of Porto Alegre, 1,540 km southwest of Brasília and just 120 km east of the border with Argentina. It was named after Augusto Pestana (1868-1934), a Brazilian engineer and politician.

History

The area was originally inhabited by

indigenous peoples of South America The Indigenous peoples of South America or South American Indigenous peoples, are the pre-Colombian peoples of South America and their descendants. These peoples contrast with South Americans of European ancestry and those of African descent. ...

("Umbu" tradition) about ten thousand years ago. In 1697,

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ind ...

Jesuits founded a Reduction in São João Batista, 40 km west of present-day Augusto Pestana. The whole region was eventually annexed by the Portuguese in 1801. One hundred years later, Augusto Pestana, then director for Public Lands in Northwest

, founded a settlement on the Cadeado Range, between the Conceição and the Ijuizinho rivers (the name "Cadeado", padlock in Portuguese, is a reference to a checkpoint that existed on the road between Cruz Alta and

Santo Ângelo Santo Ângelo is a municipality located in northwestern Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. It has about 77,568 inhabitants (according to 2020 IBGE estimate) and the total area of the municipality is about 679 km². It borders Giruá to the no ...

). The first settlers were

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

immigrants, most of them from Pomerania. During World War II, soldiers from Augusto Pestana fought for Brazil against Nazi Germany. The list of Pestanense members in the

Brazilian Expeditionary Force The Brazilian Expeditionary Force ( pt, Força Expedicionária Brasileira, FEB), nicknamed Cobras Fumantes (literally "the Smoking Snakes"), was a military division of the Brazilian Army and Air Force that fought with Allied forces in the Me ...

(FEB), active in the Mediterranean Theatre of the conflict, included Artur Goergen, Eugenio Ladvig and Helmuth Matte, now honored with street names in the city. The other FEB veterans were Sebaldo Goergen, Waldemar Senn, Albino Wilhens, Benno Müller, Oswin Wunder, Alípio Schmitt, Osvino Henrique Geiss, Adelino Mathias Dambroz, Emílio Papke, Alfonso Steiernagel e Arnoldo Gustavo Frantz. In the 1950s and 1960s, the settlement experienced a boom in wheat production and was incorporated in September 1965 as the municipality of Augusto Pestana. The first city government was formally installed on 14 May 1966.

Geography

Augusto Pestana has a total area of 347,44 km2. It borders the municipalities of Ijuí and

Coronel Barros Coronel Barros is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, 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 ov ...

to the north,

Boa Vista do Cadeado Boa Vista do Cadeado is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the Southern Region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), locat ...

to the east,

Jóia Jóia is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, 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 ...

to the south and

Eugênio de Castro Eugênio de Castro is a municipality of the northern part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The population is 2,352 (2020 est.) in an area of 419.32 km². It is located 435 km west of the state capital of Porto Alegre Porto Ale ...

to the west. The municipality is drained by the Ijuizinho and Conceição rivers, tributaries of the

Ijuí river The Ijuí River (Portuguese, Rio Ijuí) () is a river of Rio Grande do Sul state in southern Brazil. It is a tributary of the Uruguay River. The name ''Ijuí'' (the earlier spelling ''Ijuhy'' is to be found in older documents and maps), like many ...

, in the Uruguay basin. The climate is classified as a humid subtropical (Köppen: Cfa). Summers are typically warm and humid, while winters are cold and windy. The hottest month is January, with an average high temperature of 29.9 °C. The coldest month is July, with an average low of 8.4 °C.

Demographics

The population of Augusto Pestana was 7,096 at the 2010 Brazilian census. The population density was 20.4 inhabitants per square kilometer. Life expectancy is 75.8 years. Most Pestanenses are of

German-Brazilian German Brazilians (German language, German: ''Deutschbrasilianer'', Hunsrik: ''Deitschbrasiliooner'', pt, teuto-brasileiros) refers to Brazilians of full or partial Germans, German ancestry. German Brazilians live mostly in the country's South ...

Italian-Brazilian Italian Brazilians ( it, italo-brasiliani, pt, ítalo-brasileiros) are Brazilians of full or partial Italian descent. Italian Brazilians are the largest number of people with full or partial Italian ancestry outside Italy, with São Paulo being ...

and

Portuguese-Brazilian Portuguese Brazilians ( pt, luso-brasileiros) are Brazilians whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Portugal. Most of the Portuguese who arrived throughout the centuries in Brazil sought economic opportunities. Although present since th ...

ancestry. 66% of them are Roman Catholic, whereas 32% are Protestant, mostly Lutherans.

Regional languages

Riograndenser Hunsrückisch (or ''hunriqueano riograndense'' in Portuguese, Brazil's national language) is one of the names given to a Germanic language spoken in this municipality since pioneer days.

Economy

According to the statistics bureau of Rio Grande do Sul, Augusto Pestana's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 74.9 million US dollars (149.7 million Brazilian reais) in 2010. The GDP per capita was 10.5 thousand US dollars (21 thousand Brazilian reais).

Agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit w ...

is the driving force of the local economy. The municipality is a great producer of wheat, soy,

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

, beef and

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

Education

There are seven public schools, one private school and one public library in Augusto Pestana. The city is just 15 km away of the main campus of the University of Ijuí, one of the largest universities in southern Brazil.

Transportation

Augusto Pestana is crossed by the RS 522 State Highway, which connects the city to the BR 295 National Highway. The road distance to the State capital, Porto Alegre, is 405 km. There is a commuter bus service between the Ijuí, the major transportation hub in the region. The closest airport is located in Ijuí ( João Batista Bos Filho Airport).Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
/ref>

References

External links

City Government of Augusto Pestana
{{authority control German-Brazilian culture Languages of Brazil Municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul