Holambra

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Coordinates: 21°37′59″S, 47°03′20″W Holambra is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2004 is 8,128 and the area is 64.422 km². The elevation is 600 m on average.

[edit] History

The colony Holambra (from the words Holland-Brazil) and The Cooperativa Agropecuária de Holambra (Cattle Farming Cooperation of Holambra) were founded in 1948 by Catholic Dutch immigrants at the farm Ribeirão Preto, situated between the cities Jaguariúna, Santo Antonio de Posse, Artur Nogueira and Cosmópolis. After a referendum in 1991 where 98% of the population voted in favor of political autonomy for the area, Holambra gained city status in January 1993.

The cows that were shipped in from the Netherlands by the initial colonists did not surive the heat and tropical diseases so the colonists diversified to pig and chicken farming. As the colony around the farm grew in the following decades, the focus shifted from agriculture to horticulture.

Famous for its large production of flowers and plants and for the yearly event Expoflora, Holambra receives thousands of tourists each year. In April 1998 this fact was recognized as Holambra gained the status of Estância Turística, touristic location.