Pirenópolis
Encyclopedia
Pirenópolis is a town located in the Brazilian state of Goiás
. It is well known for its waterfall
s and colonial architecture, and a popular festival involving mounted horses called Festa do Divino Espírito Santo which takes place 45 days after Easter
.
who came for the gold
easily found in the Rio das Almas. From 1750 to 1800 there was a golden age when four churches were built and Pirenópolis competed with Vila Boa (present day Cidade de Goiás) as the richest town in the province. After 1800 a downturn over gold mining was set and the part of the population emigrated. With the change of commercial routes to Anápolis, the city became economically isolated. The first newspaper in the province, the Matutina Meiapontense, was published in Meia Ponte in 1830 by Joaquim Alves de Oliveira. In 1890 the city changed its name from Meia Ponte to Pirenópolis, the city of the Pireneus, the mountains located nearby. In 1960 with the construction of Brasília
there was an intensive exploitation of the famous Pedra de Pirenópolis (quartzite-micáceo). In the 1980s the hippie
s arrived with their alternative communities and production of handicrafts. Pirenópolis was born again with a huge influx of tourists, especially from Brasília. Churches were restored and all the electrical wiring was put underground.
, probably Catalans
. For saudosismo or finding some similarity with Pyrenees
of the Europe, mountain chain situated between Spain and France
, had given then to this mountain range the name of Pireneus.
and neo-classic
, of 1899, and Cine-Pireneus, in art-deco style, of 1919 and House of Chamber and Jail constructed in 1919 as identical rejoinder of the 1733 original.
with two well-defined seasons: the rainy season, which goes from October to March, and the dry season, which goes from April to September. Parts of the municipality are mountainous and maintain some climatic variations due to altitude.
Agricultural data 2006
Major attractions include Igreja Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Meia Ponte, the oldest church in Goiás, and the church Igreja Nosso Senhor do Bonfim. It also has a hippie-like colony which markets clothing and silver
work.
Today Pirenópolis is known all over Brazil for its popular festivals, especially the "Cavalhadas", introduced in 1826, in which horsemen representing Moors
and Christian
s recreate a battle fought by Charlemagne
. This tradition, part of the Festival for the Holy Spirit (Festa do Espírito Santo), was brought to the town by Portuguese settlers.
The Festas de Cavalhadas feature a parade beginning with a bugle fanfare announcing the knight's pages, then the mounted knights displaying their colors. Wearing fantastic papier-maché
helmets, the Christian knights wear blue, the Moors wear red.
The battle lasts for three days and attracts thousands of visitors to the town. The Cavalhadas take place in medieval costume, with the highlight being the mock battle, performed in the city's bullring. The Moors, of course, are defeated and convert to Christianity. For information on the cavalhadas (in Portuguese) see Cavalhadas
The town has been restored artistically with its stone paved streets and colonial houses (casarões). The Almas River, a tributary of the Tocantins River
which flows north to form the Serra da Mesa artificial lake, passes near the town and is crossed by a restored wooden bridge. There is an old theater, cinema, and a museum of the cavalhadas.
Waterfalls are the primary tourist
attraction for Pirenopolis and Corumba. Around the town, in a distance of 15 km., there are more than twenty spectacular waterfalls with pristine water. Some of them are enormous such as the Salto de Corumba (which disappeared for decades when prospectors diverted the waters for dredging). Other waterfalls are formed by a series of cascades. Many are on private property and are operated as a business. Other falls can be found on hiking trails. One of the longest rivers in the state of Goiás, the Corumbá River
has its source near Pirenópolis.
A new attraction to Pirenopolis is the small ecovillage
and permaculture
design institute located a few kilometers out of town called the IPEC or The Institute of Permaculture and Ecovillage of the Cerrado
. Bringing in foreign students through study abroad programs such as Living Routes, visitors get a first-hand account of the possibilities of sustainable living.
Goiás
Goiás is a state of Brazil, located in the central part of the country. The name Goiás comes from the name of an indigenous community...
. It is well known for its waterfall
Waterfall
A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...
s and colonial architecture, and a popular festival involving mounted horses called Festa do Divino Espírito Santo which takes place 45 days after Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
.
History
The history of Pirenópolis begins in 1727 when it was founded with the name of Minas de Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Meia Ponte, Meia Ponte (half a bridge) because half of the bridge over the Almas River was swept away in a flood. The first colonizers were PortuguesePortuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
who came for the gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
easily found in the Rio das Almas. From 1750 to 1800 there was a golden age when four churches were built and Pirenópolis competed with Vila Boa (present day Cidade de Goiás) as the richest town in the province. After 1800 a downturn over gold mining was set and the part of the population emigrated. With the change of commercial routes to Anápolis, the city became economically isolated. The first newspaper in the province, the Matutina Meiapontense, was published in Meia Ponte in 1830 by Joaquim Alves de Oliveira. In 1890 the city changed its name from Meia Ponte to Pirenópolis, the city of the Pireneus, the mountains located nearby. In 1960 with the construction of Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
there was an intensive exploitation of the famous Pedra de Pirenópolis (quartzite-micáceo). In the 1980s the hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
s arrived with their alternative communities and production of handicrafts. Pirenópolis was born again with a huge influx of tourists, especially from Brasília. Churches were restored and all the electrical wiring was put underground.
Etymology
Pyrenópolis (archaic orthography), later Pirenópolis , means “the City of the Pireneus”. Its name comes from the mountain range that surrounds the city that is Mountain range of the Pireneus . According to local tradition, the mountain range received this name for having in the region immigrant SpaniardSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, probably Catalans
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
. For saudosismo or finding some similarity with Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
of the Europe, mountain chain situated between Spain and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, had given then to this mountain range the name of Pireneus.
Historic site
Listed as architectural, urbanistic, landscape and historical heritage for IPHAN - Institute of National Historic and Artistic Heritage, in 1989, the city has a Historical Center ornated with large houses and churches of 18th century, as: First Church of Our Lady of the Rosary (1728–1732), Churches of Our Lady of the Carmo (1750–1754) and of Church of Our Lord of the Bonfim (Pirenópolis) (1750–1754), buildings as Theater of Pirenópolis, hybrid style between colonialColonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
and neo-classic
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
, of 1899, and Cine-Pireneus, in art-deco style, of 1919 and House of Chamber and Jail constructed in 1919 as identical rejoinder of the 1733 original.
Climate
The climate is humid sub-tropicalSubtropics
The subtropics are the geographical and climatical zone of the Earth immediately north and south of the tropical zone, which is bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, at latitudes 23.5°N and 23.5°S...
with two well-defined seasons: the rainy season, which goes from October to March, and the dry season, which goes from April to September. Parts of the municipality are mountainous and maintain some climatic variations due to altitude.
Economic information
The economy is based on agriculture (coffee, citrus fruits, soybeans, and corn), cattle raising (130,000 head in 2006), services, public administration, and small transformation industries. There are several small food, clothing, and furniture industries.Agricultural data 2006
- Farms: 1,765
- Total area: 191,778 ha.
- Area of permanent crops: 1,920 ha.
- Area of perennial crops: 4,185 ha.
- Area of natural pasture: 125,908 ha.
- Area of woodland and forests: 52,775 ha.
- Persons dependent on farming: 4,300
- Number of tractors: 177
- Cattle herd: 144,700 IBGE
Education and Health
- Higher education: Campus of the State University of Goiás
- Adult literacy rate: 84.4% (2000) (national average was 86.4%)
- Hospitals: 2 with 66 beds
- Infant mortality rate: 27.52 (2000) (national average was 33.0).
- Human Development IndexHuman Development IndexThe Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...
: 0.713 - State ranking: 191 (out of 242 municipalities)
- National ranking: 2,748 (out of 5,507 municipalities) Frigoletto
Tourism
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
work.
Today Pirenópolis is known all over Brazil for its popular festivals, especially the "Cavalhadas", introduced in 1826, in which horsemen representing Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s recreate a battle fought by Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
. This tradition, part of the Festival for the Holy Spirit (Festa do Espírito Santo), was brought to the town by Portuguese settlers.
The Festas de Cavalhadas feature a parade beginning with a bugle fanfare announcing the knight's pages, then the mounted knights displaying their colors. Wearing fantastic papier-maché
Papier-mâché
Papier-mâché , alternatively, paper-mache, is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, sometimes reinforced with textiles, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch, or wallpaper paste....
helmets, the Christian knights wear blue, the Moors wear red.
The battle lasts for three days and attracts thousands of visitors to the town. The Cavalhadas take place in medieval costume, with the highlight being the mock battle, performed in the city's bullring. The Moors, of course, are defeated and convert to Christianity. For information on the cavalhadas (in Portuguese) see Cavalhadas
The town has been restored artistically with its stone paved streets and colonial houses (casarões). The Almas River, a tributary of the Tocantins River
Tocantins River
The Tocantins is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" . It runs from south to north for about 2,640 km. It is not really a branch of the Amazon River, although usually so considered, since its waters flow into the...
which flows north to form the Serra da Mesa artificial lake, passes near the town and is crossed by a restored wooden bridge. There is an old theater, cinema, and a museum of the cavalhadas.
Waterfalls are the primary tourist
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
attraction for Pirenopolis and Corumba. Around the town, in a distance of 15 km., there are more than twenty spectacular waterfalls with pristine water. Some of them are enormous such as the Salto de Corumba (which disappeared for decades when prospectors diverted the waters for dredging). Other waterfalls are formed by a series of cascades. Many are on private property and are operated as a business. Other falls can be found on hiking trails. One of the longest rivers in the state of Goiás, the Corumbá River
Corumbá River
The Corumbá River is the most important river in the Central Plateau region of Brazil. Its source is in the Montes de Pireneus, near Pirenópolis, state of Goiás, near the boundary with the Federal District and its length ifs 567 km. It receives the waters of the Descoberto and São Bartolomeu,...
has its source near Pirenópolis.
A new attraction to Pirenopolis is the small ecovillage
Ecovillage
Ecovillages are intentional communities with the goal of becoming more socially, economically and ecologically sustainable. Some aim for a population of 50–150 individuals. Larger ecovillages of up to 2,000 individuals exist as networks of smaller subcommunities to create an ecovillage model that...
and permaculture
Permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...
design institute located a few kilometers out of town called the IPEC or The Institute of Permaculture and Ecovillage of the Cerrado
Institute of Permaculture and Ecovillage of the Cerrado
The Institute of Permaculture and Ecovillage of the Cerrado is an experimental educational design center and international community located on the Cerrado savanna of Brazil. IPEC began on a bare, degraded cattle pasture in 1998 to teach and demonstrate permaculture and to apply this information...
. Bringing in foreign students through study abroad programs such as Living Routes, visitors get a first-hand account of the possibilities of sustainable living.
External links
- Official website
- Pirenópolis, Goiás site with information about the town, hotels, attractions and the festival of the Cavalhadas with photos and videos.
- Tourism in Pirenópolis Lots of information. culture, history, attractions, hotels and more
- Visit Pirenópolis site with photos
- Ecocentro at the Institute of Permaculture and Ecovillage of the Cerrado in English.