Campos dos Goytacazes
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Campos dos Goytacazes is a municipality and city located in the northern area of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, with a population of 429,667 inhabitants, being the largest municipality of the state. Its area is 4.031,910 km² and its elevation is 14 m. Its name comes from the geographical characteristic of the region, very flat with fields ("campos" in Portuguese) and from the Goytacazes Indians, that inhabited the region. Campos, as the city is usually known, is a macro region of the Northern Fluminense, and is a micro region of Campos dos Goytacazes. The city has a tropical climate.
The colonization of the area started in the 16th Century, and on May 29, 1677 was created the São Salvador de Campos de Goytacazes village. On March 28, 1835 the village was promoted to city status.
Along the coast, in the Atlantic Ocean, there is an important petroleum and natural gas exploitation on the city's continental shelf, by Petrobras. Campos is also the biggest Brazilian alcohol producer and was the first city in the country to have electric power.
The city's distance to Rio de Janeiro city, which is the capital of the state, is 286 km, and the BR-101 is the access highway of the city of Campos.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Campos was the see of Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer, nicknamed "The Lion of Campos", who was one of the bishops who opposed the Vatican II reforms and who teamed with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of Dakar to consecrate four independent bishops in Econe, Switzerland, 1991. Nowadays there are in Campos two Roman Catholic jurisdictions: a Diocese, whose Bishop is Monsignor Roberto Gomes Guimarães and the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, whose Apostolic Administrator is Monsignor Fernando Areas Rifan.
There are at least three football (soccer) clubs in the city: Americano Futebol Clube, Goytacaz Futebol Clube and Centro Esportivo Rio Branco. The derby between Americano and Goytacaz is known as Goyta-cano.
