Pancas is a Brazilian municipality in the state of

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 attracti ...

. Its population was 23,306 (2020) and its area is 838 km².IBGE 2020
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East Pomeranian East Pomeranian (') or Farther Pomeranian (') is an East Low German dialect moribund in Europe, which used to be spoken in the region of Farther Pomerania when it was part of the German Province of Pomerania, until World War II, and today is ...

, a dialect of

Low German Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

, has co-official status in Pancas. It is situated on a tributary of the

Doce River The Doce River ( , "Sweet River") is a river in southeast Brazil with a length of . The river basin is economically important. In 2015, the collapse of a dam released highly contaminated water from mining into the river, causing an ecological d ...

, in the northwest of the state. Locally it is known as a good spot for

paragliding Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or in a cocoon-like 'pod' suspended be ...

. The landscape around the town is distinguished by large numbers of granite inselbergs, and Pedra Agulha ("Needle Rock") near the town is the second highest "chaminé" (high, vertical-sided granite rock) in Brazil - the highest being the famous

Corcovado Corcovado () which means " hunchback" in Portuguese, is a mountain in central Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a granite peak located in the Tijuca Forest, a national park. Corcovado hill lies just west of the city center but is wholly within t ...

in Rio de Janeiro.

History

Before the European colonizers arrived, the area was inhabited by

Amerindians In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

. The first European settlers founded a village called São Silvano, but that was destroyed by the local Amerindians. The first permanent residents arrived in 1918 looking for valuable minerals, but the region of the Doce River was practically uninhabited till 1925, it was then that the first bridge over the Doce River was built, called Florian Avidos Bridge, and this brought more people into the north of the state for the first time. The bridge primarily opened access to logging companies which brought more people and coffee plantations, opening their way to the valley where Pancas is situated. The first settlement in the area was founded in 1925, and was called Nossa Senhora Da Penha. Immigrants to the town in the 1920s and 1930 included large numbers of ethnic Germans, and the German dialect of

(now almost extinct in Europe) is spoken in the area.

External links

*
Website of the city
*
Official Pancas Website

References

Municipalities in Espírito Santo {{EspiritoSanto-geo-stub

History

See also

External links

References