Prudentópolis (; ) is a Brazilian

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the state of Paraná, in

Southern Brazil The South Region of Brazil ( ) is one of the five regions of Brazil. It includes the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina, and covers , being the smallest region of the country, occupying only about 6.76% of the territory of ...

. As of 2022, it had a population of 49,393 people. It is the center of the Ukrainian community in Brazil. The Ukrainian city

Ternopil Ternopil, known until 1944 mostly as Tarnopol, is a city in western Ukraine, located on the banks of the Seret River. Ternopil is one of the major cities of Western Ukraine and the historical regions of Galicia and Podolia. The populatio ...

is the sister city to Prudentópolis. Moreover, the town is surrounded by 100

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s, which also attracts many tourists.

History

In 1882, the project of the construction of roads in central Paraná attracted the first families to the region. Firmo Mendes de Queiroz, descended from ''

bandeirantes ''Bandeirantes'' (; ; singular: ''bandeirante'') were settlers in colonial Brazil who participated in expeditions to expand the colony's borders and subjugate Indigenous peoples in Brazil, indigenous peoples during the early modern period. T ...

'', settled there, living on agriculture. He built a

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

, giving birth to a place called "Vilinha" (Little Village) by its inhabitants. In 1894, the government decided to colonize the region of São João do Capanema. Cândido Ferreira de Abreu, the owner of this colony, decided to change its name to Prudentópolis, in honor to Brazilian president Prudente de Morais. In 1895, to settle this region, 1,500 Ukrainian

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

, about 8,000 people, came to Prudentópolis. This immigration continued until the 1920s. Most of the immigrants were from the

Ternopil Oblast Ternopil Oblast (), also referred to as Ternopilshchyna () or Ternopillia (), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its Capital (political), administrative center is Ternopil, through which flows the Seret (river), Seret, a tribu ...

of Ukraine, and today the Ukrainian city

is sister city of Prudentópolis.

Population

Nowadays, Prudentópolis is home to the largest population of Ukrainian descent in Brazil (75% of the municipality's inhabitants). Other ethnic groups that make up its population are

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

and

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

. The Ukrainian culture is still preserved by its inhabitants: the

Ukrainian language Ukrainian (, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Ukraine. It is the first language, first (native) language of a large majority of Ukrainians. Written Ukrainian uses the Ukrainian alphabet, a variant of t ...

is taught in local schools and used a liturgical language and there are typically Ukrainian constructions, it is also one of the two official languages alongside Portuguese.

Religion

The Ukrainian Catholic

particular church In metaphysics, particulars or individuals are usually contrasted with ''universals''. Universals concern features that can be exemplified by various different particulars. Particulars are often seen as concrete, spatiotemporal entities as opposed ...

, which used the

Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, is a liturgical rite that is identified with the wide range of cultural, devotional, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Chri ...

in Ukrainian language, has there the Catedral Ucraniana Nossa Senhora da Imaculada Conceição, cathedral episcopal see of an

eparchy Eparchy ( ''eparchía'' "overlordship") is an Ecclesiology, ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. An eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the administra ...

(diocese), the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Imaculada Conceição in Prudentópolis. It is (the sole) suffragan of the Metropolitan Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of São João Batista em Curitiba, who heads the only proper Eastern rite

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

in Brazil.

References

Sources

GigaCatholic on the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy

External links

Municipality site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prudentopolis Municipalities in Paraná Ukrainian diaspora in Brazil