Population 266,835 (2010) University State University of West Parana Area 2,100.105 km2 | State Parana Region Founded 1952 | |
Cascavel is a municipality in western Parana state, Brazil. It is the 5th most populous city in Parana with a population of 305,615 inhabitants according to an estimate from IBGE in August 2013. The distance (by freeway) to Curitiba, the state capital, is 491 kilometers.
Contents
Map of Cascavel
Relatively new and with a privileged topography, Cascavels development was planned, which gives it wide streets and well distributed neighborhoods. With an area of 2,100,831 km², it is considered a strategic hub of Mercosul.
Anu branco mata cascavel filhote
The city is on a plateau 781 meters above sea level. It is 504 km west of the state capital of Curitiba and 605 km west of the sea port of Paranagua, 140 km from the 3 borders (Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil) at 24° 58 South, 53° 26 West.
History
The caingangue natives inhabited western Parana, which was occupied by the Spaniards in 1557 when they founded the Ciudad del Real Guayra in current town of Guaira.
A new occupation started in 1730 with troops ("troperismo" in Portuguese), but the settlement of the current city began in the late 1910s by settlers of mixed racial ethnicity ("caboclos" – people of indigenous and European descent) and descendants of Slavic immigrants, at the peak of the cycle of erva mate.
The village began to form on March 28, 1928, when Jose Silverio de Oliveira, the "Nho Jeca", leased the land from the settler Jose Antonio Elias, in the historical area of Encruzilhada dos Gomes, and which is currently the Cascavel Velho neighborhood. It was at a junction of several trails open by ervateiros (cultivators of erva mate), drovers and military, where de Oliveira set up his warehouse. His entrepreneurial spirit was key to the arrival of new people, who brought ideas and investments.
From the 1930s and 1940s, thousands of southern settlers, mostly descendants of Poles, Germans, Italians, Ukrainians and caboclos migrating from coffee regions, began logging, farming and raising pigs in the village, which became a district in 1938.
Notably, the locality was already included in military maps from 1924, and the village was made official by the town hall of Iguacu Falls in 1936, with the name of Cascavel. The bishop of that city, Monsignor William Maria Thiletzek, renamed it as "Aparecida dos Portos", a name that did not work amongst the inhabitants.
Geography
Cascavel is located on the Third Plateau ("Terceiro Planalto") in the Western region of the state, with an altitude around 815 meters above sea level and an area of 2,091 km². The weather is sub-tropical, superhumid mesothermal with an average annual temperature around 19 °C. The average maximum temperature in January is 28.6 °C, and in July the average minimum is 11.2 °C, when frost may occur. There are several documented occurrences of snow, from the foundation of the city in 1951 as well as in the years 1957, 1960, 1964, 1975, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1992, 2000, 2006 and 2013. According to the climatic classification of Koppen, Cascavel is located in the Cfb climate region, featuring a mild climate. Within the Cfb climate category, the average temperature in the coldest month should stay below 19 °C (mesothermal), the summers should be fresh (average temperatures in the warmest month must be below 26 °C), and there should not be a dry season. Cascavel is an exception in the Third Plateau because most municipalities in the western region have Cfa climate. This is due to its relatively higher altitude which approaches altitudes of municipalities of the First and Second Plateaus. For example, the elevation of Foz do Iguacu is just under 200 meters and Curitiba is around 950 meters. The lowest recorded high temperature was on July 17, 1975 when the maximum temperature reached 1.4 °C. The coldest recorded temperature was ?6.2 °C on July 18, 1975. The maximum temperature recorded was 35.6 °C on March 12, 2005. Annual average precipitation is 1965 mm (77.362 inches).
Economy
Cascavel is responsible for 26% of the total production of cereals in the state of Parana. The main crops are soybeans, wheat, corn, rice, cotton, and beans. It is also a big producer of poultry, swine, and beef cattle.