2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ - Host Cities |
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| Belo Horizonte Since the 18th century, during the days of the Inconfidência Mineira - an independence conspiracy against the domination of the Portuguese crown - the state of Minas Gerais gambled with the idea of instating a new capital to replace Ouro Preto. |
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Brasilia The construction of this ultra-modern city, situated in the centre of Brazil, began in 1956. Since its official foundation on 21 April 1960, the city has served the purpose for which it was built: to replace Rio de Janeiro as the country's capital. |
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| Cuiabá The capital of the state of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá is located in the exact geographic centre of South America, an equidistant 2,000 km from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. |
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Curitiba The city of Curitiba is one of the finest examples of a bulky economic and industrial development carried out with responsibility and organisation. |
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| Fortaleza Although it was officially founded as a village in 1726, and would only become the capital of Ceará in 1799, Fortaleza (Portuguese for ‘fortress') owes its name to the period between 1637 to 1654, when it was controlled by the Dutch, who built the Schoonenborch Fort. |
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Manaus The very location of the city of Manaus is one of its most remarkable attractions: the confluence of the rivers Negro and Solimões (how the Amazon River is known in this part of Brazil). The dark-coloured waters and the muddy waters flow side by side for over 18 kilometres without mixing. |
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| Natal On 25 December 1597, back when Brazil was a colony of the Portuguese crown, a group of Portuguese officials reached the Potengi River with the duty of reclaiming the captaincy of Rio Grande do Norte, which was then dominated by French buccaneers. |
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Porto Alegre From the subtropical climate to the cultural habits, Porto Alegre is fairly different from the other state capitals in Brazil. Founded in 1742 by immigrants from the Portuguese archipelago of Azores, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul was the destination of thousands of immigrants from Portugal and Italy. |
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| Recife Recife is the capital of the state of Pernambuco, in the north-east of Brazil, and the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area - a conurbation of another 13 cities, including Olinda, with a population of 3.7 million. |
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Rio de Janeiro On 1 January 1502, the Portuguese explorer Gaspar de Lemos brought his ship into a bay on the Brazilian coast, which is now called Guanabara Bay. Mistakenly confusing the bay with the mouth of a river, he named it Rio de Janeiror. |
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| Salvador When the Portuguese crown first decided to carry out the endeavour of colonising Brazil, the first urban area to be settled in was Salvador, which was established on 29 March 1549. This is one of the reasons why the coastal city in the country's north-east was one of the main poles of slave trade in South America. |
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São Paulo The financial and business hub of Brazil, not only is São Paulo the biggest city in the country, it ranks among the most populous in the world, with just over 11 million inhabitants within its area of 1,523 square kilometers (588 sq mi). Located in the south-eastern region of the country, it is nicknamed Land of the Drizzle. |
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