Cunha, São Paulo

Cunha on the map of São Paulo

Cunha is a small town with the status of a climatic spa ( Estancia Climática ) in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The municipality has an area of 1410 km ², has about 25,000 inhabitants and is located in the highlands of the Alto Paraíba. The inhabitants live on agriculture. In recent years, as the economic factor nor the tourism added. Besides the agricultural zone there are large natural areas in the municipality of the tropical rain forest of the Mata Atlântica with a wide variety of flora and fauna. Among other things, the area includes the Serra do Quebra Cangalha and the Serra da Bocaina as a national park.

The municipality borders the municipalities of Ubatuba, São Luiz de Paraitinga, Lagoinha Guaratinguetá, Lorena, Silveira, Areias, São José do Barreiro in the state of São Paulo and Angra dos Reis and Paraty in Rio de Janeiro. From Paraty the highway BR101 leads to Cunha, with the last 9 km are unpaved and therefore when it rains impassable for normal cars. From Guaratinguetá, the valley of the River Paraíba and the Via Dutra highway connection between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo there are about 33 km on paved country road SP -171, but is a bad road Cunha. Another road link is also available to Ubatuba in the state of São Paulo. Due to the poor roads of the historical VW beetle has become established here as a car model because of its robustness. Although this car is out of production for 20 years, it is in the district Cunha up to 1000 of these vehicles enter (see picture in front of the local market building).

History

The Portuguese first entered the area around Cunha in 1597 in an expedition of about 700 people who set off in Rio de Janeiro. The expedition was led by Martim Correa de Sá. The expedition was accompanied by about 2,000 Indians, went to the area around Paraty ashore and boarded the Atlantic Coast Mountains on the old way of Guaianás Indians to Indians to fight the tribe Tamoios, which in turn supported at this time the French against the Portuguese.

A kind of health resort ( with altitudes around 1000 meters ), the area to search Cunha around in 1695th At that time, many adventurers and gold miners used the old way of Guaianás to gems in this region and in the underlying areas of Minas Gerais. This was Cunha, which as well as entrance to the Sertão ( Boca do Sertão ) was known, famous. Cunha developed as Ausruhort for the by -trotting adventurer and troops. Already in 1730 a place was built, the Freguesia do Falcão called.

On September 15, 1785 place called Vila de Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Cunha was founded in memory of General Francisco da Cunha Menezes, governor of the province of São Paulo. At this time, the old ways were converted to roads so that they could carry on them the great wealth of the region, the coffee. The survey was an independent municipality on April 20, 1858.