São Leopoldo () (Portuguese for ''Saint Leopold'') is a Brazilian industrial city located in the

south South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

state of

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

Geography

It occupies a total area of 103.9 km² (around 80 km² urban area) at ''circa'' 30 km from the State Capital,

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...

. The climate is sub-tropical, with temperatures varying from -2 °C minimum at Winter to more than 40 °C maximum during summer time. Summers are fairly dry.

History

Established on July 25, 1824, by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

, São Leopoldo is considered the cradle of German culture in Brazil, that is to say, it is the first official city designed by the national Brazilian governor to start the German plan of immigration in the country. It had, in 2006, a population of approximately 210,000. São Leopoldo is one of the 13 cities along the

Rota Romântica The Rota Romântica () is a scenic tourist route that runs through 13 municipalities located in the Serra Gaúcha region of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The area was first colonized by German-Brazilian, German immigran ...

('Romantic Route'), a touristic scenic route that runs from the State Capital towards the Serra Gaúcha.

Minority language

Riograndenser Hunsrückisch German Hunsrik (natively ''Hunsrik'' , ''Hunsrückisch'' or ''Hunsrickisch'' and Portuguese ''hunsriqueano'' or ''hunsriqueano riograndense''), also called Riograndese Hunsrik, ' or ', is a Moselle Franconian dialects, Moselle Franconian language deriv ...

is a regional language in South America like Pennsylvania Deitsch is in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. They are also similar because of their origin in the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

region of southwest Germany. As a Brazilian variant of European

Moselle Franconian Moselle Franconian (; ) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish. Overview Moselle Franconian is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the course of the Moselle, i ...

, it is also spoken beyond the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where for almost two hundred years it has been historically centered and where most of its 2 to 3 millions speakers live (there are speakers in neighboring southern Brazilian states, as well as in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay). There are many other municipalities with this

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

profile throughout the state and the German language is experiencing a strong revival: in 2012 the state chamber of deputies voted unanimously in favor of recognizing the Hunsrückisch Germanic dialect of Rio Grande do Sul as an official historical

intangible cultural heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. In ...

to be preserved.

Education

The area had a German school, Instituto Preteologico.Deutscher Bundestag 4. Wahlperiode Drucksache IV/3672

Archive
.

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

(West Germany). 23 June 1965. Retrieved on 12 March 2016. p. 19/51. The city is the headquarters of Unisinos University.

Gallery

Image:Sao leopoldo.jpg

External links

References

Municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul German-Brazilian culture Populated places established in 1824 {{RioGrandedoSul-geo-stub