Brazil - Paraná - Guaratuba

Guaratuba - Paraná - Brasil.

Sent by Sabino, a postcrosser from Brazil.

This is from Wikipedia : Guaratuba is a city in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Founded on 1765, it is considered to be one of the most beautiful beaches of Paraná.

The King of Portugal, Dom Jose I, worried about possible foreign raids of the Brazilian coast,commanded that villages and towns be established in more suitable locations to the projecting or dispersed small farms where the conditions were favourable. It was decided that a town should be founded between the villages of Paranaguá and of the River San Francisco. On 5 December 1765, Dom Luis sent a group of settlers to begin building the town. This comprised 200 couples, who would cultivate discovered lands. Thus Guaratuba began to take shape. In July 1766, the Conde de Oeiras directed Dom Luis praising, on behalf of the King, the projects to establish the population in the cove of Guaratuba and informed him that the King would like that the new village bear his name, S. Luis.

In 13 of May 1768, Dom Luis granted the royal charter requested by the founder of the new town which consisted of the creation and maintenance of a church. Dom Luis, in 23 of January of 1770, commanded his assistant lieutenant-colonel Alfonso Botelho de Sampaio e Sousa, who erected in village the small farm called Guaratuba, where there were already houses and other buildings. After some expeditions, on 27 April 1771, Dom Luis returned to Guaratuba. On the 28th day of that month, the Church was blessed and on the 29th the village of São Luís de Guaratuba was formally named. On 30 April 1771, the first city council was elected with the approval of the founder of the village and the provincial governor . The councillors thenceforth guided the fortunes citizens of Guaratuba, subject to the authority of the provincial governor (up to 1854 Paraná belonged to the province of São Paulo), until the Declaration of the Republic, when a new political system canme into effect. Its first elected mayor took office in 1792, thus continuing up to 20 of October 1838, when by the Act no. 7572, the city ceased to exist in its former status and was constituted as the municipality of Paranaguá. It was not until 10 October 1847, by the Act no. 02 of that year, that the city recovered its independence, being reinstalled on 25 of October of the same year. In this new phase, the first mayor was Mr. Berilo da Cunha Padilha. In 1954, the city of Guaratuba became part of the Jurisdiction of Sao Jose dos Pinhais. Finally on July 1986 Guaratuba obtained municipal independence.

The Guaratuba name means "many guarás". This name was conceived by the natives who at the time inhabited this region when the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese people. Guará is the name of a bird of red plumage that existed in abundance in this area and that even protected for the authorities, they had been extincted. Tuba means extreme amount in the aboriginal language.