Igarassu

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Igarassu (or Igaraçu) is a city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. The city is situated on the north coast of the metropolitan region of Recife. It stands as one of the earliest Europeran settlements in Brazil and is the site of the oldest church (built 1535) in the country.

[edit] History

Igarassu was originally inhabited by Caetés Indians before the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century. Its genesis as a town came with the arrival in the area by Duarte Coelho Pereira in 1535. Coelho's arrival marked the beginning of the Portuguese settlement of Brazil.

The town itself was established in 1537 as the village of Igarassu, which means “Great Canoe” in Tupi-Guarani. It was one of the first European settlements of the Hereditary Captaincy (a Portuguese administrative division) of Pernambuco. Shortly after Coelho's arrival he ordered a rock landmark erected to mark the border between Pernambuco and Itamaracá, which still stands today.

In 1685 the nearby cities of Recife, Olinda, Itamaracá and Goiana were devastated by the yellow fever. However, Igarassu escaped unharmed of the plague.

Igarassu was the site of the brief liberal republican Praieira revolt in 1848, in which the troops of Colonel Manuel Pereira de Morais were installed in the Convent of Saint Antonio. Today, the Pinacoteca Museum functions stands in its place. One of the military officers who put down the revolt was Deodoro da Fonseca, later briefly the first president of the Brazilian republic.