Rondonópolis (formerly known as Rio Vermelho (Red River)) is the third-largest

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 Mato Grosso, Brazil. It is located around from

Cuiabá Cuiabá () is the capital city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. It is located near the geographical centre of South America. Also, it forms the metropolitan area of Mato Grosso, along with the neighbouring town of Várzea Grande. The city ...

, the capital of the state. The city is named for military officer and explorer

Cândido Rondon Marshal Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (5 May 1865 – 19 January 1958) was a Brazilian military officer most famous for his telegraph commission and exploration of Mato Grosso and the Western Amazon Basin, as well as his lifelong support ...

Location

The municipality contains the Dom Osório Stoffel State Park, created in 2002. The Vermelho River runs through the south of the municipal seat and along the north of the state park border.

Overview

According to the Brazilian

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

in 2020 the town had 236,042 inhabitants. The city is growing quickly because many industries settled there and the

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu a ...

plantation is considered a "new gold rush" in the region, attracting emigrants from distant regions 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 ...

. These people are from the South and Southeast regions who used to work with cattle ranching. The farming is extensive and very automated compared to other parts of Brazil. The farms are interesting as when the industry was labor-intensive the owners built small villages around the main house for the workers. These "villages" were self-contained and included schools and medical facilities. Rarely used now for their original purpose many still stand. They are seen as an island surrounded by trees in the middle of soy bean plants stretching to the horizon. In August 2007 the Italian

wind orchestra A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...

''Orchestra Fiati Giovanile Italiana e Coro "I Music Piemonteis"'' conducted by Ugo Bairo, and his

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

, conducted by Carmelo Luca Sambataro performed there. There he premiered his wind composition dedicated to the local government: ''The Mato Grosso

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...

''. The city is situated on the

Cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the ...

, high tableland intersected by deep gorges containing

butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word me ...

and

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...

formations. The city is also the jumping off point for tourists and sportsmen visiting the Northern

Pantanal The Pantanal () is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and ...

. Rondonópolis has a domestic airport, Maestro Marinho Franco Municipal Airport.

Distances from

215 km - (134 miles) *

Campo Grande Campo Grande (, ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul in the Center-West region of the country. The city is nicknamed ''Cidade Morena'' ("Swarthy City" in Portuguese) because of the reddish-brown colour o ...

485 km - (301 miles) *

Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...

922 km - (573 miles) *

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

1.493 km - (928 miles) *

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

1.806 km - (1,122 miles)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rondonopolis Municipalities in Mato Grosso