Canoas

Submitted by editor on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 00:51

Canoas

Canoas

Flag
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Location in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Coordinates: 29°55′12″S 51°10′48″W / 29.92°S 51.18°W / -29.92; -51.18
Country Brazil
Region South
State Rio Grande do Sul
Established June 27, 1939
Government
 - Mayor Jairo Jorge da Silva (PT)
Area
 - Total 131.097 km2 (50.6 sq mi)
Elevation 8 m (26 ft)
Population (2006)
 - Total 333,322
 - Density 2,542.56/km2 (6,585.2/sq mi)
Time zone UTC-3 (UTC-3)
 - Summer (DST) UTC-2 (UTC-2)
Website canoas.rs.gov.br

Canoas (Portuguese pronunciation: [kaˈnowɐs]), which won city status in 1939, is the fourth largest city in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Its population is over 300,000 people. The city is adjacent to the capital of the gaúcho state: Porto Alegre. Canoas is the center of some important industries and the Canoas Air Force Base, used by the Brazilian Air Force.

According to the IBGE, Brazil's Geography and Statistics Institute, Canoas currently has no rural areas, but it started as a village of large landowners. The first of them was conquistador Francisco Pinto Bandeira, who received from the Portuguese Crown, in 1740, an area north of the Gravataí River.

History has that 1871 was the beginning of the village of Canoas, when the first section of the railway that would link Porto Alegre to São Leopoldo was inaugurated. Canoas was then part of the municipalities of Gravataí and São Sebastião do Caí. Soon large farms would lose space to small properties.

After obtaining city status, Canoas experienced rapid growth, especially after 1945. Today, many call it a "cidade-dormitório" (Portuguese for "bedroom city"), because thousands of people commute to neighboring Porto Alegre to work, as happens with all cities in the greater Porto Alegre metropolitan area.

Contents

City conditions and subdivisions

Canoas ("Canoes" in English) consists of mostly large sprawling neighborhoods and a lively business district, as well as numerous large factories that provide the city with the second highest GDP in Rio Grande do Sul, among them the Refinaria Alberto Pasqualini (REFAP), a Petrobras oil refinery. In addition, a new high-end district is gradually emerging in the suburbs. As happens with many Brazilian cities, there can arguably be seen two different countries in the same municipality: it does not take too long for one to drive from an impoverished slum to a rich neighbourhood.

The city's poorest neighbourhoods are completely unplanned. The Guajuviras subdivision, the old Guajuviras Farm that was developed by the government, was originally settled by squatters before the government officially opened the property for inhabitation. Poorer favelas or slums fill some of the forest or green space areas in the subdivision).

Canoas has one of the richest and most important universities in southern Brazil: the Ulbra (Lutheran University of Brazil), as well as Unilasalle and Faculdades Ritter dos Reis. The enormous wealth, manifest in the Ulbra, and crushing poverty, manifest in the slums of the city, are characteristic of the economic divide of Brazil. Many wealthy citizens in Canoas and the greater Porto Alegre metropolitan area fail to acknowledge the existence of poverty in their cities and most have never walked through the slums of their own cities.

Pictures of Canoas

  • Canoas subdivisions

  • Guajuviras neighbourhood

  • Canoas Air Base

  • Canoas Downtown

  • Getulio Vargas neighbourhood

  • Soccer game at the Ulbra Sport Club in the São José neighbourhood

  • Ulbra University

  • ULBRA Technological Museum

  • Chapel at the ULBRA

  • La Salle University

  • Old rail line in the Industrial neighbourhood

  • Gas station in the Igara neighbourhood

  • Zaffari Bourbon grocery store in the Getulio Vargas neighbourhood

  • Cultural Foundation of Canoas

  • Canoas Air Force Base

  • Getulio Vargas Federal Boulevard (BR-116) in Canoas

  • Urban Train (Trensurb) which passes through Canoas

  • Canoas Intermunicipal Bus Station (Rodoviária)

  • Canoas' train station, in 1874

  • Main Catholic Church in downtown in 1931

  • Typical vegetation in Canoas

See also

Bandeira Estado RioGrandedoSul Brasil.svg Municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul
Capital: Porto Alegre
Brazil State RioGrandedoSul.svg
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