Siderópolis is a

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 State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

of Santa Catarina in the South region of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

History

Siderópolis ( Nova Belluno) is one of the first Italian settlements in Brazil. The arrival of Italian immigrants in the region is related to the great migration of Europeans to various parts of the world that took place by the end of the 19th century. They migrated especially to the Americas, searching for better living options fleeing the squalid living conditions that came to be because of the European

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

. In Brazil, after 1890, the federal government developed a policy aiming to encourage immigration from Europe, thus it reduced the price of ship tickets and gave them benefits, which favored the migration of

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 ...

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 ...

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

and

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. ...

mainly to the region

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 ...

. In 1891, the first Italian immigrants who had embarked at

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

arrived in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, passed by Desterro (

Florianópolis Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina (state), Santa Catarina, in the South Region, Brazil, South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as we ...

's old name), Laguna with a train and the railway Dona Teresa Cristina they reached Pedras Grandes, from there on an ox cart to Urussanga, and finally to the long-awaited land yet unnamed. A beautiful land surrounded by a vast mountain range, plenty of natural resources and inhabited by Brazilian natives, the Bugres. The immigrant group consisted of about 100 families from the Italian provinces of

Belluno Belluno (; ; ) is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about north of Venice, Belluno is the Capital (political), capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites region. W ...

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...

and

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

. At first the settlement was known as Nova Belluno (New Belluno), which name was suggested by Marta Savaris, one of the immigrants, because of the similarity of the local relief of Belluno, Italy. In the mid 20th century were discovered large reserves of coal in the soil of the region. The first miners began to settle it, among them Brazil's National Siderurgic Company (CSN), which explored the region between 1940 and 1980. The district was renamed itself ''Siderópolis'' to highlight the presence on the coal market, also to please the CSN's big investors, company which promised a bright future. In the 1940s, being a district Urussanga, from then began a movement for the emancipation of Siderópolis, which culminated on December 19, 1958, when then-governor of Santa Catarina, Heriberto Hülse, signed the law No. 380, breaking up the municipality of Siderópolis from Urussanga, thereby making the city politically emancipated and court of the county Urussanga.

Language

The

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

presence was so strong that currently much of the population is

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

, maintainers of Italian dialects, the most common being Bergamasco and a new fusion of the Veneto's dialect, named

Talian Talian may refer to: Places * Talian, Iran, a village in Tehran province, Iran * Dhok Talian, a village in Punjab, Pakistan People * Jozef Talian (born 1985), Slovak footballer Other uses *Talian dialect Talian (, ), or Brazilian Venetian, or ...

. Even after nearly 150 years, a relevant percentage of the population speak Portuguese with strong Italian accent.

Italian cuisine

An interesting fusion of Northern Italian with German, Portuguese, Arabic and Polish cuisines was developed in that area. The classic

Polenta Polenta (, ) is an Italian cuisine, Italian dish of boiled cornmeal that was historically made from other grains. It may be allowed to cool and solidify into a loaf that can be baked, fried or Grilling, grilled. The variety of cereal used is ...

with chicken on tomato sauce, the Italian soup became Minestra di Fagioli (bean soup) as the production of all the kinds of beans is very common. Is quite easy to find a restaurant that serves

lasagne Lasagna (, ; ), also known by the plural form lasagne (), is a type of pasta, possibly one of the oldest types, made in very wide, flat sheets. In Italian cuisine it is made of stacked layers of pasta alternating with fillings such as ragù ...

with

Churrasco ''Churrasco'' (, ) is the Portuguese and Spanish name for grilled beef prominent in South American and Iberian cuisines, and in particular in Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. The term is also used in other Spanish- and Por ...

(due to strong presence of gaucho tradition).

Return to origins

As almost 80% of the people are of Italian ancestry, they have the right to dual nationality, eligible to living in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. Every year hundreds of young couples migrate to Germany to work at Gelateria in the summer season, Bringing great growth in civil construction. Some of them decided to rebuild their lives in Italy, Germany and United kingdom. Some of the few descendants of Japanese who also settled in the region (see

Japanese Brazilian are Brazilian citizens who are nationals or naturals of Japanese ancestry or Japanese immigrants living in Brazil or Japanese people of Brazilian ancestry. Japanese immigration to Brazil peaked between 1908 and 1960, with the highest concentr ...

) made their way to in Japan, as they found difficult to fit into cultural patterns of Brazilian society.

Redemption of the traditions

Groups of culture and tradition are fighting today to change back the city's name for the original, New Belluno. The mining just brought destruction for the nature, polluting rivers and enriching a minority.

Notable people

* Enemésio Ângelo Lazzaris, BISHOP of The

Roman Catholic Diocese As of June 21, 2024, the Catholic Church in its entirety comprises 3,172 ecclesiastical jurisdictions, including over 652 archdioceses and 2,249 dioceses, as well as apostolic vicariates, apostolic exarchates, apostolic administrations, apost ...

of Balsas (Latin: Dioecesis Balsensis) located in the city of Balsas in the

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 ...

of São Luís do Maranhão in

. Writer of the book ''Familia Lazzaris-Pascai: Tributo a um imigrante''(Lazzaris Family: Tribute to an Immigrant) * Valdo, football player * Daniel Frasson, football player

References

* Familia Lazzaris-Pascai: Tributo a um imigrante- Don Enemésio Ângelo Lazzaris - 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sideropolis Municipalities in Santa Catarina (state)