Miraí is a Brazilian

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' ...

located in the state of

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 ...

. The city belongs to the mesoregion of

Zona da Mata The Zona da Mata (, "Forest Belt") is the narrow coastal plain between the Atlantic Ocean and the dry '' agreste'' and ''sertão'' regions in the northeastern Brazilian states of Maranhão, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alag ...

and to the microregion of Muriaé. * Main Rivers: ''Fubá'' and ''Muriaé''

History

''Brejo'' was its first name. The agriculture sector is pointed as one of the most successful of the region

. The city territory is located in a region of easy access due to the presence of ''Rio-Bahia'' highway, also called

BR-116 The BR-116 is part of the Brazilian Highway System. With at total length of it is the longest highway in the country. It is also the longest highway in the country to be completely paved. The highway connects Fortaleza, Ceará, one of the larg ...

. The first village was set up on the margins of the ''Muriaé River''. Around 1840, attracted by land fertility, the first explorers came to ''Miraís region. Finding land and good water, they spread the news and eventually other farmers arrived. At 1852, a group of farmers acquired part of the land belonging to the farm named ''Três Barras'', in the place they built a chapel to ''Santo Antônio'' and around grew a village called Brejo. Later, the village became the District of Paz, with the name of S''anto Antônio do

Muriaé Muriaé is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in southeast Minas Gerais state, Brazil. It is located in the Zona da Mata (Minas Gerais), Zona da Mata region and its population in 2022 (IBGE) was approximately 104,108 inhabitants. Importan ...

'', belonging to ''Freguesia de Santa Rita de Meia Pataca''. At 1883, the district was turned into ''Freguesia de Santo Antônio do Camapuã''. The name was changed to ''Miraí'', which means "wet land" in Tupi, by 1895. The municipality was created in 1923, separating itself from

Cataguases Cataguases is a municipality located in the southeastern part of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. The estimated population in 2020 was 75,540. It is mainly an industrial centre (textile, metallurgy, clothes) with a strong influence of coffe ...

Attractions

The town presents as natural attractions countless waterfalls. The Carnival Parade is very traditional, attracting tourist from all over the country. In September the city host the Festival Samba and Botequim, a cultural event offering good music and regional cuisine, by the bus station.

Ataulfo Alves

Ataulfo Alves was the most famous person to be born in Miraí, he is known as one of the best

samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

compositor of the second half of the 20th century, there is a museum to his memory in the city.

Disasters

In January 2007, the city was victim of a

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civi ...

with catastrophic proportions after the collapse of a barrage belonging to the company ''Rio Pomba Cataguases'', more than 2 billion liters of water mixed with mud and chemical waste used on the extraction of

bauxite Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...

was dumped in the city causing its destruction and affecting the ''Muriaé River'', hence destroying many cities on its way to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. This was the second accident to happen in the region caused by this company. The damage to the environment was unmeasurable.

Sources

* Secretaria da Cultura, em 1 de outubro de 1999 * Assembléia Legislativa do Estado de Minas Gerais

References

External links

Município: Miraí

''portalclick.com.br''. 31 August 2007.

Festival Samba e Botequim pictures
Municipalities in Minas Gerais {{MinasGerais-geo-stub