Ponte Nova 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 central-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,

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 ...

Geography

Ponte Nova is located a few kilometers south 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 ...

on a tributary called the Piranga. As of 2020, the population is estimated at 59,875 inhabitants and the area of the municipality is 470.6 km. The elevation is 402 meters above sea level. It has railroad connections to

Ouro Preto Ouro Preto (, ), formerly Vila Rica (, ), is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The city, a former Brazilian Gold Rush, colonial mining town located in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains, was designated a ...

and is linked by state highways to the capital of

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the List of largest cities in Brazil, sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population of around 2.3 million, and the third largest metropolitan area, containing a population of 6 million. It is the List of cities in Sout ...

and to Ouro Preto. The beginnings of the city go back to 1755 when the first farms were established in the region. Agriculture and commerce were the occupations of the first inhabitants. The town saw the cycles of first sugar cane and then coffee. From 1770 to 1832, the town was officially denominated an Arraial and was called Capela Filial do Furquim. In 1862 it was raised to a Vila and Ponte Nova became the seat of a municipality in 1866. Distances to major cities: *

- (MG) 180 km *

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

- (SP) 781 km *

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

- (RJ) 420 km * Vitória - (ES) 392 km

Economy

The economy is based on

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

, limited industry and services. Ponte Nova produces

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

, both dairy and meat,

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

, fruits and vegetables, and swine raising, this being quite developed with more than 350 establishments and 30,000 head. Until recently the city was the center of a prosperous sugar-cane growing area and there were several mills (engenhos in Portuguese). The first sugar cane mill in the state of Minas Gerais was installed in Ponte Nova in 1885. Most of these have now closed. The municipality included the

Fazenda São Mateus Biological Reserve Fazenda São Mateus Biological Reserve was a biological reserve in Minas Gerais, Brazil. History The biological reserve was created by Law 16.580 of 23 September 1974 with an area of in the municipality of Ponte Nova, Minas Gerais. An audit in 2 ...

, created in 1974. An audit in 2012 stated that a number of biological reserves created in 1974 on state-owned land were being re-assessed, since they no longer qualified as conservation units. These were Fazenda São Mateus,

Carmo da Mata Carmo da Mata is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in the Southeast region of Brazil. The municipality contained the Carmo da Mata Biological Reserve. An audit in 2012 stated that some biological reserves created in 1974 on state-own ...

, Colônia 31 de Março and others.

References

External links

* https://archive.today/20121127031402/http://www.pontenova.mg.gov.br/home/index/principal/default.asp {{Authority control Municipalities in Minas Gerais

Geography

Economy

See also

References

External links