'Porto Alegre' (lit. "Joyous Port")
[1] is one of the largest cities in
Brazil, and the capital city of the
Brazilian state of
Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre is one of the most important cultural, political and economic centers of
Southern Brazil. Porto Alegre held
[2] the best standard of living among all Brazilian capitals for many years and it was the only Brazilian city listed
[3] on
Jones Lang LaSalle's ''World Winning Cities''. It is also home to such famous football clubs as
Grêmio and
Internacional.
The city
The city is located at a delta resulting from the junction of five rivers, officially called
Guaíba Lake (popularly mentioned as a river too). Although its origins date from the mid-18th century, when immigrants from the Azores settled in the area, the city was officially established in 1809.
Before this, Porto Alegre was the port of
Viamão on the shore of Guaíba Lake. Its ancient name was Porto dos Casais (Port of the couples), and it was initially settled by
Azorians. Many families of settlers also came from the city of
Rio Grande (''Big River'') in the litoral Lagunar region, to the south, a military fortress at that time. Today Rio Grande is the most important port of Rio Grande do Sul state.
More than 70 neighborhoods (see below) are part of the city and 2/3 of the population are concentrated in the Zona Norte (Northern Zone), where most of the economic activity, including the city center, takes place.
Porto Alegre was the seat of the
World Social Forum in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005. As the second largest city in southern
Brazil, it is also an important industrial center in the mentioned geographical area. It also is a center for
''
gaúcho'' (the popular name for natives of the State) history and culture, famous for its ''
churrasco'' (barbecue) and ''
chimarrão'' (a strong and hot tea prepared from
erva mate). Important Brazilian universities, such as
UFRGS,
FFFCMPA and
PUCRS are located there.
The Terceira Perimetral (Third Perimetral), the largest road work ever done in the city, was built between 1999 and 2006. The Terceira Perimetral is a 12 km long road, connecting the northern and the southern sectors of the city, without passing through the city center.
Porto Alegre is also one of the wealthiest cities in Latin America, and one of the most diverse. It has welcomed immigrants from all over the world, the largest numbers coming from
Portugal,
Germany,
Italy,
Spain and
Poland. The are also significant Arab,
Jewish and Afro-Brazilian contingents in the population.
Porto Alegre is part of a transitional area culturally influenced by both
São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro; as well as
Buenos Aires. Examples of both tendencies are visible through the openness in facing social needs such as the emerging gay rights and receptiveness to world social events. It holds a noticeable advantage over other Brazilian cities on aspects such as literacy, number of books read per year, wealth distribuition and longevity rates. The average ''Porto Alegrense'' is also seen as very politicized when compared to people from other parts of the country .
Geography
Climate
Porto Alegre is located in the
subtropical area and so is called its climate. Average precipitation is high and regular throughout the year. Summer temperatures only occasionally rise above 32°C (90° F), although high levels of humidity make the season very muggy. The highest temperature ever registered was 40.7°C (105° F) in January 1943. The winter reveals mild average temperatures, contrasting to the quite changeable, and many times sudden behavioral, windy and rainy weather which also characterizes this time of the year. Usual winter temperatures range from 5 ºC to 25 ºC. Snow is very rare, sometimes confused with
sleet. The lowest temperature ever recorded was -4 °C in July 1918. Autumns tend to be as changeable as winters, but are typically warmer. Spring, stabler akin to summer, is slightly drier than all the other seasons. Occurrence of
radiation fog is common, causing several delays in early flights.
Precipitation
The
humid subtropical climate gets its name from the high humidity experienced in this environment. Dominance of the warm and moist maritime tropical air creates summers similar to the humid tropics. Precipitation is generally evenly distributed throughout the year. Annual precipitation varies from 100 inches near the coast to 25 inches inland. Frost is generally only a problem in winter when very cold cP air masses penetrate this region, a real hazard for fruit and vegetable growers in the southeastern Brazil.
Demographics
As of the census of 2006, the
population was 1,440,939. The
population density was 2.905,3 hab./km².
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★ )
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text:Populational growing of Porto Alegre.
Ethnic groups
According to the 2005 PNAD census, the racial makeup of Porto Alegre was:
[4]
:
''Source: IBGE (PNAD)[4].''
Porto Alegre is mostly composed of Brazilians of
European descent. Its
colonization started in the mid-
18th century, mostly with the arrival of
Portuguese colonists from the
Azores Islands. From 1748 to 1756, 2.300
Azoreans were sent to the region by the
King of
Portugal to protect
Southern Brazil from neighboring invaders.
[6] These colonists, mostly composed of
couples, established the city of ''Porto dos Casais'' (Port of the Couples), nowadays Porto Alegre. In 1775, 55% of Rio Grande do Sul's population was of Azorean Portuguese origin.
[7]
Porto Alegre was composed mainly of Azoreans and their
African
slaves until the first half of the
19th century. Nowadays,
Blacks,
Mulattoes and
brown people, who may also have some
Amerindian ancestry compose, together, 17.1% of the city's population.
The first non-Portuguese people to settle Rio Grande do Sul were
German immigrants. In 1824, the first immigrants from
Germany arrived in Porto Alegre, but they were sent to what is now the city of
São Leopoldo (28
km far). From 1824 to 1914, 50 thousand Germans arrived in Rio Grande do Sul.
[8] Most of them had rural communities in the interior of the State as their first destination. The large
rural exodus in Brazil in the early
20th century brought many German-descendants to Porto Alegre and, nowadays, they compose a large percentage of the population.
The other largest group of immigrants who arrived in Porto Alegre are the
Italians. They started immigrating to Brazil in
1875, mainly from the
Northern Italian Veneto region.
[9] As the Germans, Italians were also first sent to rural communities, mainly in the
Serra Gaúcha region. After some decades, many of them started to
migrate to other parts of Rio Grande do Sul, including Porto Alegre.
Minoritary communities of
immigrants, such as
Eastern Europeans from
Poland and
Ukraine;
Arabs from
Lebanon and
Syria;
Asians from
Japan and
Jews also made Porto Alegre their home.
Curiosity
Vehicles: 563,255(Jun/2006);
Daily
newspapers: 5 (Jul/2006);
Established: 03/26/1772.
Economy
The gaucho capital is at a privileged location. Placed at an strategic point within
Mercosur, Porto Alegre is the geographical center of major routes of the Southern Cone, and it's located mid-way between
Buenos Aires and
Montevideo, as well as
São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro. Porto Alegre is also an important business center and a gateway to major tourist attractions in the region.
According to the
IBGE/2004, the PIB (GNP) of Porto Alegre is R$ 15,944,201,000 and its PIB per capita is R$ 11,257. According to the English consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle (2004), Porto Alegre is placed second in rural output and industrialization among all Brazilian cities. Due to its geographical location, the city is considered the capital of the
South American Common Market.
Education
Portuguese is the official language of schools, but
English and
Spanish are part of the official
high school curriculum.
Colleges and universities
★
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS);
★ Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul (UERGS);
★
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS), and more others.
★
Fundação Faculdade Federal de Ciências Médicas de Porto Alegre (FFFCMPA)
★ Faculdades Riograndenses (FARGS);
★ FAPA
★ ULBRA
Culture
The gastronomic features have the same attention: there are countless options – but the favorite dish will always be the famous "gaucho" barbecue, accompanied by the inseparable chimarrão gourd.
Whoever strolls along Porto Alegre’s streets is surprised with its perennial vegetation, hills, and ponds. What is also dazzling is the preservation condition of its historic buildings, which shelter memories and culture. But what really charms visitors is the surprisingly harmonious match of its welcoming manner of an interior town with the fast hustle and bustle of a large urban center, its architecture as the icon of modernity, and the cultural heterogeneity.
Museums
'Museum of Art of Rio Grande do Sul – MARGS'
With a predominantly neoclassic style, the building was designed by German architect Theo Wiederspahn. Originally it was the headquarters of the Fiscal Surveillance Agency of the Federal Revenue Office. Nowadays, it hosts the largest collection of works in Rio Grande do Sul, many of which were created by renowned local, national, and foreign artists. The internal spaces are illuminated through “vitreauxes” (artistic window glasses) embellishing the major hall ceiling. The building became a historic landmark by the National Historic Site Office in 1983 and it is at Alfândega Plaza, Downtown. You may visit it from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Events
Bookfair.
'Bookfair'
It gathers exhibition and book sales, an autograph afternoon, lectures, literary parties, and even plastic arts shows. It is held always on the second fortnight of November, at Praça da Alfândega.
'Farroupilha Week'
Musical and dancing shows from the Pampas region, typical foods, and a traditionalist parade. This event always takes place from September 13th to 20th.
'Expointer'
An 8-day cattle-raising and agribusiness fair. It is always held between August and September, in the municipality of Esteio, 24 km away from Porto Alegre.
'Latin American Handicraft Fair'
It gathers over 13 countries in exhibitions throughout the year. Crafty pieces and antiques are exhibited in shows on Saturdays, at 5ª Avenida Center and, on Sundays, at “Brique da Redenção” (Handicraft Fair).
Carnival
The four-day period before Lent leading up to Ash Wednesday is carnival time in
Brazil. Rich and poor alike forget their cares as they party in the streets.
Infrastructure
International Airport
With 37.6 thousand square meters of constructed area and four levels, the passenger terminal at
Salgado Filho International Airport can receive 28 large airplanes simultaneously.
The terminal has 32 check-in counters, ten boarding bridges, nine elevators and ten escalators. It has a totally automated aircraft movement control center and the main spaces are air conditioned.
The apron, surfaced with prestressed concrete, can serve jumbo jets like the Boeing 747-400. The garage structure has eight levels, 44 thousand square meters and 1,440 parking spaces.
Another terminal, with 15 thousand square meters and capacity for 1.5 million passengers a year, serves general, executive and third-tier aviation (conventional piston-engine and turboprop planes).
Porto Alegre Airport was the first one administered by Infraero to have integrated check-in. This service offers flexibility in use of terminal facilities and installations, enabling carriers to access their own data centers via shared-use computers from any check-in counter position. This makes it much easier to allocate counter space according to demand fluctuations, making for less idle space.
The Aeroshopping area – a center for commerce and leisure – operates 24 hours a day with shops, services, a food court, along with a triplex cinema, the first to be established at a Brazilian airport.
Salgado Filho International Airport also has an air cargo terminal, built in 1974, with 9,500 thousand square meters of area and capacity to handle 1,500 tons of export cargo and 900 tons of imports each month.
The average daily movement (arrivals and departures) is 174 aircraft, flying scheduled routes connecting Porto Alegre directly or indirectly to all the country’s other major cities, as well as smaller cities in the interior of the states of the South Region and São Paulo. There are also international flights with direct connections to cities of the Southern Cone.
Port
The
Port of Porto Alegre is situated in the Eastern margin of lake Guaíba. Its geographical position enables a permanent traffic between Porto Alegre and
Buenos Aires, transporting steel-
industry products and mainly agricultural produce.
Highways
The capital city of the “
gauchos” is connected to BR-290 and BR-116 federal highways, thus enabling the link with other Brazilian States as well as with
Uruguay and
Argentina.
Tourism
Usina do Gasômetro.
Porto Alegre City Hall – “Paço dos Açorianos” (The Palace of the Azoreans)
Ornamented in neoclassic style, its construction was started in 1898. Across the City Hall is the “Fonte Talavera de La Reina”, a gift from that Spanish colony in 1935, during the celebration of the centennial of the Farroupilha Revolution. The sculptures embellishing the façade stand for Economy, Education, and Politics. It became a historic site in 1979. The city’s center milestone is there. The city hall lies at Praça Montevidéu, 10, Downtown.
Central Public Market
It was inaugurated in 1869, but the second floor was only completed in the year 1913. Between 1995 and 1996 it went through a large refurbishment, which modified its internal structure and renovated its external part. Its more than one hundred stores host spices and typical products of the gaucho culture. Restaurants, cafeterias, and ice cream shops supplement the offer of goods and services. It became a historic landmark in 1979. It lies at Glênio Peres Square, Downtown – XV de Novembro Plaza.
Chalet of the XV de Novembro Plaza
Located along the Glênio Peres Square, it is one of the most traditional bar-draft beer-restaurants in the city, where the last “lambe-lambe” photographs of the region work. [“Lambe-lambes” are photographers who develop pictures outdoor using the oldest method known.] In the Bavarian style, with art nouveau traits, the centenary Chalet was built up on a demountable steel structure, keeping its original chandeliers and tiles even nowadays. It is located at XV de Novembro Plaza, Downtown.
Glênio Peres Square
Inaugurated in 1922, it hosts artistic-cultural and political manifestations. The paving recovers the drawing existing in front of the City Hall building in the 30’s, similar to a Persian carpet comprised by gray basalt flagstones and Portuguese black, white, and pink stones. The J.G. Brill model Streetcar, used in that very decade, is there.
Post and Telegraph Offices
Built in the beginning of the century, the building is featured by the influence of Germanic baroque architecture. Bronze-domed asymmetric towers recall the helmets worn by the Prussian army. At the center of the building is Atlas, a Greek mythology character who was convicted to bear the world upon his shoulders. A female figure representing the old continent and the figure of an adolescent boy, simulating the new continent, comprise the ensemble. It became a historic landmark by the National Historic Site Office in 1981 and it is at Alfândega Plaza, Downtown.
Museum of Art of Rio Grande do Sul – MARGS
With a predominantly neoclassic style, the building was designed by German architect Theo Wiederspahn. Originally it was the headquarters of the Fiscal Surveillance Agency of the Federal Revenue Office. Nowadays, it hosts the largest collection of works in Rio Grande do Sul, many of which were created by renowned local, national, and foreign artists. The internal spaces are illuminated through “vitreauxes” (artistic window glasses) embellishing the major hall ceiling. The building became a historic landmark by the National Historic Site Office in 1983 and it is at Alfândega Plaza, Downtown. You may visit it from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Arquipélago (Archipelago)
Guaíba Lake receives water from Jacuí, Caí, Sinos, and Gravataí Rivers. On the islands, which are the result of this water confluence, the "Delta do Jacuí" (Jacuí Delta) State Park was created in 1976. The archipelago is comprised by 28 islands, most of which are not inhabited. There, 329 vegetal specimens, 108 kinds of birds and over 20 species of fish thrive, in addition to hundreds of other animals. Some islands are connected to the continent by the Regis Bittencourt Crossing – the well-known "Ponte do Guaíba” (Guaíba Bridge). Grande dos Marinheiros, Pavão, Flores, and Pintada islands shelter a 15-thousand people population. The islanders live on waste recycling and fishing, and also produce handicraft.
Ilha da Pintada (Pintada Island)
Ilha da Pintada is part of the group of islands comprising the Delta do Jacuí State Park. Currently, crafty fishing is the most representative economic activity in the place. Its population descends from Azorean immigrants.
Guaíba
The sunset, as seen from the Guaíba Lake, blankets the city with golden lights. Every day the most diverse viewers wait for the twilight show along its 72 km shore.
Morros (Hills)
A ring of granitic hills aged 730 million years enframes Porto Alegre, occupying 65% of the city area. The hills are part of the Southern Rio Grande Shield - a triangular platform 48 thousand sq. km long, originated from rocks which melted under intense pressure and heat inside the Earth, and then emerged, rising as high as the mountains. Nowadays, spalled and cracked by the erosion of million of years, small round-topped hills are formed and are predominant in the gaucho capital landscape.
Morro Santana (Santana Hill)
It is the city’s highest peak. Over half of its extension – about one thousand hectares – is owned by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. At its 311 meters high are native forests and fields, waterfalls, swamps, marshes, lakes, brooks, and cascades. A unique landscape.
Morro do Osso (Osso Hill)
It is located between Tristeza, Camaquá, and Ipanema districts. From the top of its 143 meters, with an over 200-degree panoramic view, one can see the Guaíba Lake, Ipanema Beach, Downtown Porto Alegre, and a few hills. A share of this Hill lines off the Osso Hill Natural Park, which must soon be expanded. The park has a head office with an auditorium for educational activities, forester service, and an environmental educational program.
Morro São Pedro (São Pedro Hill)
It lies between Restinga and Lami districts. From its 289 meters high, it is possible to see part of the city’s Southern Zone, Lami Beach, and Itapuã Lighthouse. With over one thousand hectares, it has several clean and preserved stream fountains. There you can find four basic vegetal formations: clean field, with tripping vegetation; dirty field, with clumps of shrub and semi-shrubby vegetation; the gallery forest, which flows across the brooks; and pluvial subtropical wood or forest. In addition to campo flickers, partridges, “sabiás”, southern house wrens, and sparrow hawks, other animals in danger of extinction, as auburn monkeys, live in this hill.
Morro Santa Teresa (Santa Teresa Hill)
Located at Santa Teresa District, this hill is 148 m above sea level, providing a panoramic view of the shores of Guaíba Lake along the “Marinha do Brasil” and Maurício Sirotsky Sobrinho (Harmonia) parks. From Ruy Ramos belvedere, at the hilltop, it is also possible to see some of the archipelago islands, the “Usina do Gasômetro” (Gasholder Plant), and Downtown Porto Alegre. Santa Teresa is known for sheltering several TV and radio stations, being this the reason why the population nicknamed it as "TV Hill".
Botanical Garden
With an area of approximately 43 hectares, the Botanical Garden is in the district named for it, between Cristiano Fischer Avenue and Salvador França Avenue. It has scientific collections with over two thousand issues, 725 vegetal species, spread along the different open areas in the park. It also has a Germplasm Bank, a Seed Bank and a Sapling Terrarium, in addition to developing environmental educational activities. The Natural Sciences Museum is headquartered at the Garden and preserves flora and fauna species from the State Natural Patrimony.
Farroupilha Park (Redenção)
It is located at Farroupilha District. Its 370 thousand sq. meters of extension hosts 45 copper and marble monuments, a luminous fountain and the “O Expedicionário" (The Expeditionary) monument, representing a double Triumph Arch with relief sculptures which are a homage to Brazilian soldiers who fought in Italy during the World War II. It also hosts a mini-zoo, an amusement park for children, a solar retreat, a market, soccer and bowl fields, cycleways, athletic sports track, gymnastics equipment, and an auditorium for 4,500 people. On Sundays, the Brique da Redenção Fair takes place.
Maurício Sirotsky Sobrinho Park (Harmonia Park)
Located at Cidade Baixa District, it has 300 thousand sq. meters, hosting in its area a replica of a traditional gaucho farm - the Harmonia Ranch -, designed to maintain and practice the regionalist culture. It also has an aeromodelling track, a nautimodelling tank, children’s sites, soccer and bowl fields, volleyball courts, and over 100 barbecue grills available in different areas of the park.
Saint Hilaire Park
Located on RS-040 highway, at about km 02, this park is 17 km away from Downtown Porto Alegre. It has 11.8 sq. km, 240 hectares of which are designed to leisure and 940 hectares reserved to permanent preservation. Its name is a homage to scientist Augustin François César Prouvençal de Saint-Hilaire, an internationally renowned French traveler and naturalist who lived in Brazil for many years. The park infrastructure has soccer fields, bowl fields, volleyball courts and indoor soccer fields, aeromodelling and skating tracks, a playground and approximately 100 barbecue grills.
Mascarenhas de Moraes Park
Officially created in 1984, the park has a total area of 182,383 sq. meters. In addition, it has an ecologic reserve of approximately 6 hectares, inhabited by many flora and fauna species. The Southern Wing of the park has a playground and three volleyball courts; in the central part are the park administration office, soccer and bowl fields, volleyball courts, soccer seven fields and multipurpose courts and fields. Mascarenhas de Moraes Park is at Humaitá District.
Chico Mendes Park
It pays a homage to preservationist Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, commonly known as Chico Mendes, the union leader of rubber tappers and a great defender of the Amazon forest, murdered in 1988, in Acre State. The park occupies 247 thousand sq. meters and it is located still at an urban consolidation stage area. It has a forest of eucalyptuses and a small ecologic reserve comprised basically of native trees which ensure the survival of several species of the avifauna. It also has a volleyball court, a basketball court, two soccer fields, three bowl fields, table games, gymnastics equipment, cooper lanes, rest rooms, a playground, and an area with barbecue grills. The Chico Mendes Memorial and the outdoor amphitheater are designed to ceremonies and cultural agendas.
Parque Marinha do Brasil (The Brazilian Navy’s Park)
It occupies an area of 715 thousand sq. meters at Praia de Belas District. From there one can admire the waters of Guaíba Lake. Sportspeople enjoy the park very much due to its infrastructure characteristics – it has four tennis courts, five multipurpose courts, a soccer field, six indoor soccer fields, an athletic sports track, a skating track, a skateboard track, nine sand soccer fields, a mourning hall and gymnastics equipment. Bicycle and quadricycle rental is also available. It also has a playground and a small amusement park. Out of its total area, 11 hectares represent forests and grass-covered spaces where there are many native trees and exotic species.
Parque Moinhos de Vento (Moinhos de Vento [Windmills] Park)
It has 115 thousand sq. meters and offers sports infrastructure with a soccer field, tennis court, bowl field, gymnastics equipment, skating track, multipurpose courts, and athletic sports tracks. The Park administrative head offices were built in the shape of an artificial windmill debouching as a small cascade. Turtles, geese, drakes, and fish live at the site. The avifauna becomes more abundant in the fruiting period of trees and shrubs of the park. There is also a library for children, containing one thousand books, especially devoted to ecologic literature. The Park lies at Moinhos de Vento District.
Lami Biological Reserve
The city has a Biological Reserve 170 hectares long within its territorial limits. Lami Biological Reserve shelters a meteorological station and a terrarium of native saplings. The diverse atmospheres enable growing over 300 vegetal species and a higher number of animal species; the swamps and reeds are home to many aquatic organisms.
Historic Buildings
Porto Alegre is a huge outdoor architectonic museum. The different styles are concentrated especially downtown, recording on the buildings the influences which marked the capital city’s golden time. Therefore, walking across the narrow streets of the historical center, one may see buildings with baroque characteristics – as the “Casa da Junta” – sharing the space with the modern architecture of Farroupilha Palace – a place that today hosts the State Legislative Assembly.
Monuments
The monuments of the gaucho capital city may be seen in several points throughout the city. They are exhibited in public spaces, as the Júlio de Castilhos Monument, at Praça da Matriz (Main Church Square), embellishing the façade of public buildings, as the collection of statues adorning the Old City Hall, at Praça Montevidéu. Porto Alegre also has a series of modern works, such as the Monument to the Azoreans, located across the “Ponte de Pedra" (Stone Bridge).
Cultural Centers
Porto Alegre offers large spaces for shows, as the "Anfiteatro Pôr-do-Sol” (Sunset Amphitheater) on the shores of Guaíba Lake, or areas for qualified exhibitions, as the rooms of Mário Quintana House of Culture and the Gasholder Plant.
Sister Cities
The
Sister Cities of Porto Alegre are:
★ -
Suzhou,
People's Republic of China
★ -
Kanazawa (
Ishikawa,
Japan)
★ -
Saint Petersburg,
Russia
★ -
Austin, Texas,
United States of America
Famous people related to Porto Alegre
★
Adriana Calcanhotto, singer and instrumentist
★
Alex Klein, oboist
★
Anderson, soccer player with Manchester United
★
Daiane dos Santos, gymnast
★
Diogo Rincón, soccer player with
Dynamo Kyiv
★
Elis Regina, singer
★
Ernesto Geisel, military general and dictator
★
Humberto Gessinger, musician, singer and songwriter
★
Isaac Karabtchevsky, conductor
★
Jorge Furtado, film writer and director
★
Luís Carlos Prestes, Communist leader
★
Luis Fernando Verissimo, writer
★
Mario Quintana, poet
★
Moacyr Scliar, writer and physician
★
Ronaldinho Gaúcho, soccer player with
Barcelona
★
Vanessa Ferretti, volleyball player
★
Emerson Thome, former
Sheffield Wednesday soccer player.
Districts
Neighborhoods of Porto Alegre are geographical divisions of the city. There is no devolution of administrative powers to neighborhoods, although there are several neighborhoods associations devoted to improve their own standards of living. Porto Alegre has nowadays 78 official distinguished neighborhoods and 4 territories.
Pictures of Porto Alegre
References
1. "Porto Alegre." World Book. 2007-04-05 .
2. "2003." Prefeitura de Porto Alegre. 16 Sept. 2006 .
3. "2004." Prefeitura de Porto Alegre. 16 Sept. 2006 .
4. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística
5. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística
6. http://www.riogrande.com.br/historia/colonizacao3.htm
7. http://www.atlasesportebrasil.org.br/textos/229.pdf
8. http://www.riogrande.com.br/historia/colonizacao4c.htm
9. http://www.riogrande.com.br/historia/colonizacao5b.htm
External links
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My Porto Alegre - Foreigners in Porto Alegre
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Porto Alegre Mayor's Office
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City Paper Correio do Povo (The People's Mail)
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City Paper Zero Hora (Zero Hour, Midnight)
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Porto Alegre detailed Street Map
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Satellite photo map from Google Maps
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Webcams and photos in Porto Alegre
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Porto Alegre guide tour
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Hotel reservations at Porto Alegre
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Daring democracy -- Porto Alegre, Brazil THIRD WORLD TRAVELER
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Zombie Walk Porto Alegre 2006
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Lessons of Porto Alegre
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