Manhuaçu is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in Eastern

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

state, in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Its population was 91,169 (2020) and its area is 628 km².

Geography

Located 260 km from the state capital of Belo Horizonte, it is near the important road junction of BR 262 (Belo Horizonte-Vitória) and BR 116 (Rio-Bahia). The total area of the municipality is 629 km² and it lies at an elevation of 635 m in the foothills of the Serra da Chabata or Caparaó, which form the boundary between the states of Minas Gerais and

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attracti ...

. The main rivers are the Ribeirão do Manhuaçuzinho and the

Manhuaçu River The Manhuaçu River is a river of Minas Gerais state in southeastern Brazil. The river is in the Doce River basin. It runs past the Feliciano Miguel Abdala Private Natural Heritage Reserve, located on its left bank, home to one of the last wild p ...

, which are tributaries of the

Doce River The Doce River ( , "Sweet River") is a river in southeast Brazil with a length of . The river basin is economically important. In 2015, the collapse of a dam released highly contaminated water from mining into the river, causing an ecological d ...

. Altitudes range from at Foz do Rio São Mateu to at Serra Pedra Dourada. Temperatures range from to , with an average of . Annual rainfall averages . The municipality holds part of the

Sossego Forest Biological Station The Sossego Forest Biological Station () is a private natural heritage reserve in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It holds a population of the critically endangered northern muriqui, a primate. Location The Sossego Forest Biological Station i ...

Caparaó National Park

The

Caparaó National Park Caparaó National Park () is a national park created in 1961 to protect the Caparaó Mountains, located on the border between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo states in Brazil. Pico da Bandeira, one of the highest mountains in Brazil Braz ...

is a national park administered by the

Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources The Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources ( Portuguese: ''Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis'', IBAMA) is a government agency under the administration of the Brazilian Minis ...

(IBAMA) and is located approximately 60 km southeast of Manhuaçu on the boundary dividing the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. The entrance to the park is at Alto Caparaó. The area of the park is 318 square kilometers. It was created in 1961 by President

Jânio Quadros Jânio da Silva Quadros (; 25 January 1917 – 16 February 1992) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd president of Brazil from 31 January to 25 August 1961, when he resigned from office. He also served as the 24th a ...

. It contains the third highest peak in the country, the

Pico da Bandeira Pico da Bandeira, or Bandeira Peak ( Portuguese for ''Flag Peak'', ), is the third highest mountain in Brazil, situated on the border of Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais states. It is the highest point in both states. It was considered the hig ...

(2,891 m). In 1859 Emperor

Dom Pedro II ''Don (honorific), Dom'' PedroII (Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga; 2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed the Magnanimous (), was the List o ...

had ordered that a flag of the Empire be placed on the highest peak of the Serra do Caparaó. It is believed that the name Pico da Bandeira is due to this fact. The mountains of the Caparaó chain have landscapes of great beauty with numerous waterfalls and caverns.Parque Nacional do Caparaó
There are also other important peaks like Pico do Cristal (2769.7 m) and Pico do Calçado (2.766 m).

Economy

The economy of the city is based on the production and processing of mountain

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

. It is the center of commercialization of coffee of the Zona da Mata, and there are offices and warehouses of the main exporting and processing companies of the country. There are storage facilities for about one million sacks of coffee. The region harvests about 1.5 million sacks of coffee a year There are three schools of higher education, Faculdade do Futur

Doctu

and Facig - Faculdade de Ciências Gerenciais de Manhuaç

Transportation

Manhuaçu is served by Manhuaçu Airport, Elias Breder Airport.

References

External links