Atibaia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Atibaia (or Estância de Atibaia) is a Brazilian city located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The name is derivated from an indigenous language called Tupi, and has a meaning of "healthy water river". Its name has changed through the time, from the primitive Tupi word: Tybaia, to Thibaia, Atubaia, Thibaya, and finally the city's modern name, Atibaia.
Its strawberry crops are one of the most well-known characteristics of the place. These crops are cultivated mainly by Japanese descendants, since the city was a common Japanese immigrant center.
[edit] Geography
Atibaia is located 65 km from the capital of the state São Paulo. It is also located 65 km from Campinas and 80 km from São José dos Campos, two major urban centres of the region.
The city is located on a strategic highway crossing: the junction of Rodovia D. Pedro I and Rodovia Fernão Dias, having direct access to important cities, such as São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Campinas and Jacareí.
Atibaia has 491 square kilometers of area, 40% of this area is urbanized. The average altitude is 800 meters.
[edit] Demographics
According to the census of 1996, executed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Atibaia has approximately 121,000 inhabitants. However, 30,000 of these are people who own lands in the city, cottages and summer houses, but don't have fixed residence (floating population).
There is not a great industrial activity in Atibaia, and so there is a huge labour offer. According to the IBGE census, 65% of the population (95,342 inhabitants) is part of the economical active age group.
[edit] History of Atibaia
In 1665, a man called Jerônimo de Camargo and his expedition found a hill near a river named Tubaia (later called Atibaia River). Jerônimo de Camargo was a "bandeirante explorer". Their main objective was to search the interior lands of Brazil for rich mineral resources, such as gold, silver and emeralds. The richest lands, in matter of minerals, were the lands of which is now called state of Minas Gerais.
Jerônimo de Camargo, once he saw the river Tubaia, ordered his men to buld a chapel there. The area was already occupied by a priest called Mateus Nunes da Siqueira, that had contact with native indians, from the tribe of Guarulhos.
Jerônimo then built a farm at that place, around the month June of 1665. Near this farm, the priest Mateus, with the help of the natives, built a village. The village was called Atibaia.
Atibaia was a very important settlement at that time, because it was in the way of the expeditions (Bandeiras) that were going to Minas Gerais, in the north. São Paulo, probably the second most important city of Brazil at that time, was in the south of Atibaia, and the mining region was in the north, locating Atibaia in the middle way.
As time passed, Atibaia became very important. Even the king of Portugal, D. João VI, visited the small town of Atibaia and slept here for a night time. Many famous artists went to Atibaia, such as Benedito Calixto, a famous painter, whose 2 paintings are still there in the city. Alberto Santos-Dumont, a famous Brazilian aviation pioneer, also visited Atibaia.
In April of 1864, the town Atibaia was officially called a city, due to the increased size of the population.
Nowadays there's an important avenue that cross the city named Jerônimo de Camargo, named after the famous founder of Atibaia.
