Santa Vitória do Palmar (lit. "Saint Victoria of the Palms") is a Brazilian city and municipality. It is the southernmost

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 Brazil, located in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

of Rio Grande do Sul. To the west of the municipality is the

Lagoa Mirim Lagoon Mirim (Portuguese, ) or Merín (Spanish, ) is a large estuarine lagoon which extends from southern Rio Grande do Sul state in Brazil into eastern Uruguay. Lagoa Mirim is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a sandy, partially barren isth ...

and beyond that is

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

; to the east and southeast lies the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, and to the north is the city of Rio Grande. To the south, it borders the municipality of

Chuí Chuí () is a municipality located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It's the southernmost municipality of Brazil, located in the coordinates 33°41′0″S . A border town, it shares its name with sister city Chuy, Uruguay. The two tow ...

and Uruguay. The city proper is located approximately inland from the Atlantic, east of Lagoa Mirim and north of the Uruguayan border at Chuí. The city is traversed by the Brazilian federal

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

BR-471, the most important road link between Brazil and Uruguay. It is by road from the state capital,

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the twelfth most populous city in the country and the center of Brazil's fif ...

, and about from Uruguay's capital, Montevideo. Santa Vitória do Palmar used to be the southernmost city in

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 ...

, until the former village of

was split from its territory and incorporated as a new city in 1997. However, while the ''urban seat'' of Chuí is more southerly, the territory of Santa Vitória do Palmar still extends slightly further south than Chuí's, and contains Brazil's southernmost geographic point, located on a bend of the Chuí River just upstream from its mouth on the

, near the village of Barra do Chuí, which also belongs to the municipality. The municipality lies on a windy coastal plain which is a mosaic of sand dunes,

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...

s ( Lagoa Mangueira being the largest one),

marshland A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

spots and

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

farms. This variety of different

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s side by side ensures a rich

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

, protected in the municipality's northern part in the Taim Ecological Station, shared with Rio Grande. The city's economy is based on rice growing, beef

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

and

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

raised for

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

, in addition to being a transit point on BR-471, the main highway linking Brazil and Uruguay. Santa Vitória do Palmar is a large municipality, about long north–south. Its coast also includes the larger part of Cassino Beach, the world's longest uninterrupted stretch of sandy ocean shore, over from the stony breakwaters of Rio Grande in the north to the mouth of Chuí River in the south. Two small beach resort villages are located in the municipality: Praia do Hermenegildo and Barra do Chuí, which is Brazil's southernmost inhabited place. Four stones from the Santa Vitoria do Palmar meteorite was found near the town in 2003 and 2004.

Geography

Climate

Santa Vitória do Palmar has a mild humid subtropical climate (''Cfa'', according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

), bordering an oceanic climate (''Cfb''), as the mean temperature in the hottest month is just above 22 °C.

Gallery

Image:Farol da Barra.JPG Image:Aqui começa o Brasil.JPG Image:Klimadiagramm-Santa Vitoria do Palmar-Brasilien-metrisch-deutsch.png

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Vitoria do Palmar Populated coastal places in Rio Grande do Sul Municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul Extreme points of Brazil