Fortaleza

Colonial period

Fortaleza's history began on February 2, 1500, when Spaniard Vicente Pinzón landed in Mucuripe's cove and named the new land Santa Maria de la Consolación. Because of the Treaty of Tordesillas, the discovery was never officially sanctioned. Colonisation began in 1603, when the Portuguese Pero Coelho de Souza constructed the Fort of São Tiago and founded the settlement of Nova Lisboa (New Lisbon). After a victory over the French in 1612, Martins Soares Moreno expanded the Fort of São Tiago and changed its name to Forte de São Sebastião.

In 1630 the Dutch invaded the Brazilian Northeast and in 1637 they took the Fort of São Sebastião and ruled over Ceará. In battles with the Portuguese and natives in 1644 the fort was destroyed. Under captain Matthias Beck the Dutch West Indies Company built a new fortress by the banks of river Pajeú. Fort Schoonenborch ("graceful stronghold") officially opened on August 19, 1649. After the capitulation of Pernambuco in 1654, the Dutch handed over this fortress to the Portuguese, who renamed it Fortaleza da Nossa Senhora de Assunção ("Fort of Our Lady of the Assumption"), after which the city of Fortaleza takes its name.

Fortaleza was officially founded as a village 1726, becoming the capital of Ceará state in 1799.

Imperial period

During the 19th century, Fortaleza was consolidated as an urban centre in Ceará, supported by the cotton industry. With the transformation of the city into a regional export center and with the increase of direct navigation to Europe, the Customs of Fortaleza was built in 1812. Silva Paulet played an important role in the structural evolution of the city, erecting works like the Fortress of Our Lady of the Assumption in 1812, in the place of what remained of the Fort of Our Lady of the Assumption, and the Public Walk in 1820, besides having been The author of the first urban plan of the city, from 1812. In 1824, the city was targeted by the revolutionaries of Confederation of the Equator. Especially in the second half of the century, as a result of the fertile cotton era, the city was seized by a great period of urban development and construction of remarkable equipment, such as the Lyceum of Ceará and the Lighthouse of Mucuripe in 1845, Santa Casa de Misericórdia In 1861, the Prainha Seminary in 1864, the water supply system in 1866, the Public Library in 1867, the Public Chain in 1870, the Ceará Railroad Network, the Fortaleza Port on the Metallic Bridge, textile factories, intellectual centers and Communication vehicles, for example. The period was marked as the belle époque of Fortaleza, representing a time of economic consecration that was reflected in areas such as architecture, culture and intellectual production. Between the years 1846 and 1877, the city went through a period of enrichment, economic and infrastructural improvement.

In order to discipline the growth of the city, Adolpho Herbster continued the urban planning scheme conceived by Silva Paulet in 1818, characterized by the tracing of chess roads, and, inspired by the reforms carried out in Paris by Baron Haussman, designed the Topographic Plan of the Fortress and Suburbs, in 1875, definitive landmark of municipal urbanism. In the 1870s and 1880s, the Ceará Abolitionist Movement and the republican ideals that culminated in the liberation of the slaves in Ceará on March 25, 1884, four years before the Golden Law came into being and were strengthened. The main event of the abolitionist cause of Ceará in the capital was the popular uprising, between January 27 and 31, 1881, led by the Dragon-headed raiders, who ended the slave trade in the capital, fueling the state libertarian impetus and National level. [29] The intellectuals of the literary movement of the Spiritual Bakery, which emerged in 1892, greatly contributed to the diffusion of progressive ideas in Fortaleza.

Republican period

In the twentieth century, Fortaleza underwent significant urban changes, with improvements and the rural exodus to the city, with growth mostly towards the end of the decade of 1910, this made the city the seventh most populated city in Brazil. In 1922, Fortaleza reached its first hundred thousand inhabitants with the annexation of the cities of Messejana and Parangaba, now important districts of the city. In 1954, the first university in the city was created, the Universidade Federal do Ceará(UFC) .

In 1983 DIF I started to integrate the territory of the new city of Maracanaú, which, just some years ago, was made again part of the Greater Fortaleza (the city's Metropolitan area). In the 1980s, Fortaleza exceeded Recife in population terms, becoming the second most populous city in Northeastern Brazil, with 2,571,896 inhabitants.

During the political awakening that followed the military regime, the people elected the city's first woman mayor, Maria Luíza Fontenele of the Brazilian Workers' Party, which meant that the city administration was controlled by a party of the centre-left. At the end of the twentieth century, the administration of the city hall and the city underwent a range of structural changes with the opening of several avenues, hospitals, cultural spaces and it became one of the main tourist destinations in the Northeast and in Brazil.

Climate

Fortaleza has a typical tropical climate, specifically a tropical wet and dry climate, with high temperatures and high relative humidity throughout the year. However, these conditions are usually relieved by pleasant winds blowing from the ocean. Average temperatures are not much different throughout the year. December is the warmest month, with a high of 30.7 °C (87.3 °F) and low of 24.6 °C (76.3 °F). The rainy season spans from January to June, with rainfall particularly prodigious in March and April. The average annual temperature is 26.6 °C (79.9 °F). The relative humidity in Fortaleza is 79%, with average annual rainfall of 1,608.4 millimetres (63.32 in).

Fortaleza weather is unique in that there is usually rain during the first seven months of the year from January to July. During this period, relative humidity is high. Fortaleza's climate is usually very dry from August to December, with very little rainfall.

Vegetation

In Fortaleza there are some remaining areas of mangrove in preserved areas. The municipality contains the 3,320 hectares (8,200 acres) Pedra da Risca do Meio Marine State Park created in 1997 to support an offshore area of reefs of ecological and tourist importance.

Ecology and environment

The vegetation of Fortaleza is typically coastal. The restinga areas are found in dune regions near the mouths of the Ceará, Cocó and Pacoti rivers, in the beds of which there is still a mangrove forest. In other green areas of the city, there is no longer native vegetation, constituting of varied vegetation, fruit trees more commonly. The city is home to seven environmental conservation units. These are the Sabiaguaba Dunes Municipal Natural Park, the Sabiaguaba Environmental Protection Area, the Maraponga Lagoon Ecological Park, the Cocó Ecological Park, the Ceará River Estuary Environmental Protection Area, the Environmental Protection Area of the Rio Pacoti and the Pedra da Risca do Meio Marine State Park. There is also, in the city, the Area of Relevant Ecological Interest of Sírio Curió, that protects the last enclave of Atlantic Forest in the urban zone.

The Cocó River is part of the river basin of the east coast of Ceará and has a total length of about 50 km in its main area. The park is inserted in the area of greater environmental sensitivity of the city, where it is possible to identify geoenvironmental formations such as coastal plain, fluvial plain and surface of the coastal trays. The Cocó river mangrove is home to mollusks, crustaceans, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. The park has a structure of visitation, with guides, ecological trails and equipment and events of environmental education and ecotourism. The Coaçu River, affluent of the river Cocó, forms in its bed the lagoon of the Precabura.

The Rio Pacoti provides much of the water supply for Fortaleza. At the municipal boundary with Caucaia, the estuary of the Rio Ceará is covered by an environmental protection area (APA), which was set up in 1999.

Demographics

According to the 2010 IBGE Census, there were 2,315,116 people residing in the city of Fortaleza. The census revealed the following numbers: 1,403,292 Pardo (multiracial) people (57.2%), 901,816 White people (36.8%), 110,811 Black people (4.5%), 33,161 Asian people (1.4%), 3,071 Amerindian people (0.1%).

In 2010, the city of Fortaleza was the 5th most populous city proper in Brazil, after São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Brasília.

In 2010, the city had 433,942 opposite-sex couples and 1,559 same-sex couples. The population of Fortaleza was 53.2% female and 46.8% male.

The following cities are included in the metropolitan area of Fortaleza (ordered by population): Fortaleza, Caucaia, Maracanaú, Maranguape, Aquiraz, Pacatuba, Pacajus, Horizonte, São Gonçalo do Amarante, Itatinga, Guaiúba and Chorozinho.

According to a genetic study from 2011, 'pardos' and whites' from Fortaleza, which comprise the largest share of the population, showed up a degree of European ancestry of about 70%, being the rest basically divided between Native American and African ancestries. A 2015 study, however, found out the following composition in Fortaleza: 48,9% of European contribution, 35,4% of Native American input and 15,7% of African ancestry.

Religion

The prevailing religion of Fortaleza is the Roman Catholic branch of Christianity, due to the influence of Portuguese settlers and missionaries during the colonial rule of Brazil.

Source: IBGE 2000.

Even though it emerged from Dutch Protestant occupation and was established as a village due to a fortification and not a religious mission, Catholicism has been dominant in Fortaleza since the beginning of its history. According to the census of 2010, 1,664,521 people, 67.88% of the population strengthened, followed Roman Catholicism, 523,456 (21.35%) were Protestant, 31 691 (1.29%) represented Spiritism and 162 985 (6.65%) had no religion whatsoever. Other religions, such as Umbanda, Candomblé, other Afro-Brazilian religions, Spiritualism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, other Eastern religions, Esotericism and other Christian churches like Mormon were less representative. The population of Catholics in Fortaleza was greater than that of the Brazilian index, and that of the irreligious, smaller, although with a higher percentage than all other non-Christian religions added.

Politics

The administration of the municipality is made from the executive and legislative branches. The first mayor of Fortaleza was, without a year of the Independence of Brazil, Joaquim Lopes de Abreu, and first pre-determined, in the year following the Proclamation of the Republic, José Freire Bezerril Fontenelle. The current 48th representative of the city's executive power, municipal elections in Brazil in 2012, is Roberto Cláudio, of the PDT, which won a total of 650,607 votes (53.02% of the valid votes) that year and occupies The Palácio do Bispo. The Regional Executive Secretariat (SER). Legislative power, in turn, consists of the City Council of Fortaleza, composed of 43 city councilors, elected for four-year terms, and responsible for drafting municipal laws fundamental to the administration, as Budgetary Guidelines Law, in addition to supervising the executive. The municipality is, in addition, governed by organic law. In January 2015, there were 1 659 091 voters in Fortaleza (26,457% of the total state), distributed in thirteen electoral zones. The number of persons directly and indirectly employed in the municipal public administration in 2013 was respectively 31 318 and 4 950.

The municipality is the seat of the State Court of Ceará, which has jurisdiction over the entire territory of the state, the Public Ministry of the State of Ceará and the 7th Region of the Regional Labor Court. The forum responsible for sticks of justice in the Fortaleza region is the Clóvis Beviláqua Forum, which acts on the six zones in which the mountains rise. The city also houses the seat of state executive power, the Abolition Palace, occupied by governor Camilo Santana, of the PT, elected in the general elections in Brazil in 2014. historically headquarters of the Iracema Club, which was Ceded to the Municipal Hall and now houses municipal executive bodies. Still in the city, there is the Administrative Center Governor Virgílio Távora, there is no Cambeba, no qualification of the secretariats of government and other administrative administrations.

Fortaleza is also the regional headquarters of several federal government institutions. Among the military institutions present in the city, are located in the Fortaleza Air Base, an important military aviation milestone during World War II, a Port Authority of Ceará, a School of Apprentice Sailors of Ceará and the Command of the Tenth Military Region. The city also has units of the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNICEF. Since 1996, a city is part of the Common Market of Cities of Mercosur.

Economy

At the beginning of the decade of 2000, among the capitals of the Northeast, Fortaleza had the third largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP), being surpassed by Recife and Salvador. It was estimated that, in 2011, Fortaleza would have the largest GDP in the region, according to the nominal increase that had been occurring in recent years; But this happened in 2010, when the economy of the capital of Ceará grew by more than 5 billion reais, reaching a GDP of R$37.1 billion and surpassing expectations. In 2012, the GDP of Fortaleza reached the value of 43.4 billion Reais, which consolidated the municipality as the richest in the Northeast region, the tenth of the country and the eighth among the capitals. In the same year, the value of taxes on products net of subsidies at current prices was R $6,612,822,000 and the municipality's GDP per capita was R$17.359,53. The city's booming economy is reflected in purchasing power, the country's eighth largest, with estimated consumption potential at 42 billion reais in 2014.

The main economic source of the municipality is centered in the tertiary sector, with its diversified segments of commerce and service rendering. Next, the secondary sector stands out, with the industrial complexes. In 2012, the percentage contribution of each sector to the municipal economy was 0.07%, 15.8% and 68.8% of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, respectively. The wealth of the capital is largely due to activities coming from all over the metropolitan region, whose economy is the third strongest in the North and Northeast regions and whose population is almost four million. In 2012, the city had 69,605 units and 64,674 companies and active commercial establishments, in addition to 873,746 employees and 786,521 salaried employees. Wages, together with other types of remuneration, amounted to 17,103,562 reais and the average income of the municipality was 2.7 minimum wages.

Culture

According to the Master Plan of Fortaleza, the Special Areas for the Preservation of Historic, Cultural and Archaeological Heritage are the regions of the Center, Parangaba, Alagadiço Novo/José de Alencar, Benfica, Porangabuçu and Praia de Iracema. Properties of conservation interest. The architectural heritage of Fortaleza in the form of fallen goods, however, is predominantly concentrated in the center of the city. The Mucuripe Lighthouse is unfortunately in ruins today, Ceará and Fortaleza were part of the pioneering group of states and cities to adopt public policies to protect the living intangible heritage of their culture, through the Masters of Culture program.

Museums, theatres and cultural spaces

The cultural life of Fortaleza is diverse and fruitful. Many artists, writers, painters and singers use the city's busiest stages and squares to stimulate regional culture. Among the theaters, the largest and most popular are Theatro José de Alencar, the stage of the main local and universal culture shows, the São José Theater, the São Luiz Cinema Theater, Teatro RioMarand Teatro Via Sul. The Ceará Museum houses numerous artifacts from the memory of Fortaleza, among pieces of paleontology, archeology and indigenous anthropology, furniture, items of struggles and popular revolts, of religiosity and about the intellectual production and irreverence of Ceará. The Dragão do Mar Center of Art and Culture is the main cultural space of Fortaleza. In this center are the Ceará Museum of Culture, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ceará, theaters, a planetarium, cinemas, shops and spaces for public presentations, as well as housing the Public Library Governador Menezes Pimentel, Oporto Iracema of the Arts and the School of Arts and Crafts Thomaz Pompeu Sobrinho. Other examples of notorious historical constructions of Fortaleza are the Fortaleza Customs House, which houses the CAIXA Cultural de Fortaleza, the Sobrado do Doutor José Lourenço, a cultural center specialized in visual arts, and the Station building João Felipe, the starting point of the railroad built in the dry season of 1877, now deactivated, with plans to use its dependencies for the installation of the Pinacoteca do Ceará. Such equipment is located in the surroundings of one of the founding areas of Fortaleza, with an architectural heritage still preserved, of neoclassical predominance, reminiscent of the era of the economy of the cotton in the days of the belle époque strengthen. Although distant from the historical center, the House of José de Alencar was the first well-known fortress of Fortaleza in 1964. The site houses art collections, a gallery, a library and the ruins of the first steam power plant in Ceará in 1830, The initial mark of the industrialization of the state. In the different SERs of the city, the complexes of the CUCA Network are spread, which are great facilities dedicated to art, leisure and education, especially for young people.

In addition to the cultural manifestations of an artistic nature, Freemasonry is also present in the society of Freemasonry, which has regional representation through two Brazilian obediences, the Grand Masonic Lodge of Ceará and the Great State East of Ceará. There are also service clubs in the city, such as the Lions Club and Rotary International, which reached Fortaleza with the founding of the Rotary Club of Fortaleza in 1934.}

The Ceará handicraft has its main market and showcase in Fortaleza. In the city, there are several specific places for trade in handicraft products, such as the Ceará Craft Center (CeArt); Ceará Tourism Center (Emcetur), in the historic building where the Fortaleza Public ] The Crafts Fair of Beira-Mar; the Central Market of Fortaleza; and the Commercial Pole of Avenida Monsenhor Tabosa. The diversity of handicrafts found in Fortaleza is great, with more characteristic articles from leather, clay, liana and wood, cotton fiber manufactures, ceramics, baskets and braided with carnauba straw, lace bobs, embroidery, crochet, among others.

Literature and cinema

The main literary manifestation of Fortaleza's history emerged at the end of the 19th century, in the cafes of Praça do Ferreira, known as the Spiritual Bakery, a pioneer in the dissemination of modern ideas in Brazilian literature that would only be adopted nationally in the following century, in the Modern Art Week. The most important historical entities of high culture still present in the city are the Ceará Institute and the Ceará Academy of Letters, the first academy of letters created in Brazil, founded in 1887 and 1894 respectively. The Ceará Institute has revealed important names in national historiography and philosophy, such as Farias Brito and Capistrano de Abreu. Among the writers who are strong or linked to the Cearense Academy of Letters that were members or patrons of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, are Gustavo Barroso, Araripe Júnior, José de Alencar, Heráclito Graça, Franklin Tavora, Clóvis Beviláqua and Rachel de Queiroz, the first woman to Be part of the entity. The Casa de Juvenal Galeno is another historical cultural institution of Fortaleza, named after one of the greatest poets born in the city, Juvenal Galeno. In this cultural space, was created, in 1969, by Carneiro Portela, the Clube dos Poetas Cearenses. The house became illustrious by the festivals of poetry, seminaries and sovereigns of young intellectuals from Fortaleza.

In cinema, the most traditional name of Fortaleza is Zelito Viana, director of films like Villa-Lobos: A Life of Passion and Life and Death of Severina. At the present time, Karim Aïnouz, responsible for the direction of Madame Satã, Suely in the Sky and Futuro Beach, and script of Lower City, Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures and Behind the Sun, has also been nationally prominent. The Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, and the Berlin Festival's Golden Bear competition. Another current exponent of cinema born in Fortaleza is Halder Gomes, director and screenwriter of Holliúdy Cinema. New filmmakers in the city have gained in recent years prominent exhibitions such as the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival. The most traditional cinema event in Fortaleza is the Cine Ceará (Ibero-American Film Festival), considered one of the main festivals of the country, which takes place at the Cine-Teatro São Luiz.

Fashion

The main fashion name in the city is the Lino Villaventura, who, from Fortaleza, designed himself nationally and internationally and today is one of the main names of São Paulo Fashion Week, besides being one of the founding designers of this fashion week. There are major events in the city, such as the Fortaleza Fashion Festival, Fortaleza Fashion Week and Dragão Fashion Brasil, considered the largest fashion event in the Northeast and the third largest in the country. The Maraponga Mart Moda shopping center is a reference in the northern and northeastern regions in authorial fashion, as well as hosting events such as Ceará Summer Fashion and Maraponga 40 Degrees.

Much of the clothing that is produced in Ceará flows through Fortaleza, which in turn is recognized as one of the most important textile centers of the country, giving the garment industry great weight in the metropolitan economy. Brands of the city like Santana Textiles and headquarters of brands like Esplanada and Otoch have considerable regional influence. Leather and lace products are core elements of local fashion and have great tradition and cultural value. The beach fashion is one of the most striking trends in the clothing of the citizen's stronghold due to the great appreciation of the coast of the city and Ceará as a destination for beach tourism.

Music

Forró is the most popular musical genre in the city, explored by several specialty concert venues and trainer of a robust entertainment industry across the state. Bands originating in Fortaleza, such as Mastruz with Leite and Aviões do Forró, were precursors and responsible for the popularization of electronic forró, which promoted the revaluation of the accordion in the genre and brought it closer to pop music. The forró pé-de serra, however, still holds great cultural influence and commercial prominence in the city.

Styles such as rock and its various ramifications, blues, jazz, samba, hip hop, among other contemporary trends, are also part of the cultural production of Fortaleza and are frequent in the nights of the city. Strong bands such as Selvagens in Search of Law and Instigated Citizen have gained a certain amount of notoriety when performing at festivals like Rock in Rio and Lollapalooza. Another strong musical identity is the lambada, which was very successful in the city in the late 1980s.

In MPB, some of the names that developed career in Fortaleza were Fagner, Ednardo, Belchior, Amelinha, among other artists of the movement Free Mass. The musical tradition of Fortaleza, however, goes back to the composer Alberto Nepomuceno, one of the greatest names in classical music in Brazil, a pioneer in the development of the country's musical nationalism, and therefore considered the "founder of Brazilian music". ] The Alberto Nepomuceno Conservatory is one of the city's leading music schools. Another traditional institution of musical education is the School of Music of the Ancuri, deactivated and in process of revitalization.

Carnival

Fortaleza Carnival season is not as famous as that in other northeastern cities like Salvador or Recife, as the local population prefer to spend the holiday at others beach cities of Ceará. Through the streets of Fortaleza, the Carnival brings the samba together with festivities as a celebration of Fortaleza's past and diverse culture. It is particularly notable for its unique style of maracatu known as maracatu cearense.

Cuisine

The gastronomy of Fortaleza is very close to the typical Northeastern cuisine, and, locally, traditional dishes such as the baião de dois, usually accompanied by barbecue of mutton or meat of sun. The seafood is another ingredient of typical dishes of fortalezeense cuisine, such as the steak moqueca and the mackerel and snapper fish, whose original objective popularly known was to recover the forces of the jangadeiros that came back from the high seas.

The fruit of the sea identity of the coast of the state is the crab. Shrimp and lobster are also widely used delicacies in dishes such as shrimp rice or shrimp dumplings.

Tourism

Fortaleza is a big tourist destination for the domestic Brazilian market. According to the Ministry of Tourism, the capital of Ceará is the second most desired destination in Brazil and the fourth that receives the most visitors. Fortaleza is the gateway to the Route of Emotions, a route that is composed of Delta do Parnaíba, Jericoacoara and Lençóis Maranhenses

The tourist vocation of the city has stimulated the growth of a robust hotel structure and mainly of entertainment, especially beach huts, handicraft shops, water parks, clubs, nightclubs and concert halls, besides being responsible for the development of projects such as Acquario Ceará, third largest aquarium in the world, under construction on the edge of the city. Attractions such as the Beach Park theme park, located in the Great Fortaleza, Avenida Beira Mar and its bars, restaurants and music clubs, the beaches of Futuro and Iracema and Pirata Bar have placed Fortaleza among the Brazilian destinations preferred by Europeans.

Scuba diving is possible in the area of Pedra da Risca do Meio Marine State Park, a marine protected area located about 10 nautical miles from the shoreline of Fortaleza.

Urban beaches

Fortaleza has about 25 kilometres (16 mi) of urban beaches. From North to South, the urban beaches of Fortaleza are Iracema, Meireles, Mucuripe and Praia do Futuro. Each beach has its own peculiarities:

Education

In 2010, the level of the education factor of the Strengthening Human Development Index was medium, despite its great advance, which went from 0.367 to 0.695 between 1991 and 2010. According to data from the 2010 Human Development Atlas of Brazil, Fortaleza's adult education levels were divided as follows: 8.57% did not complete primary school or were illiterate, 62.43% had completed elementary education, 45.93% had completed high school and 13.73% had completed higher education; All indices above the Brazilian average. The average strength was 10.04 years expected from the study, more than the estimate from Ceará, 9.82. According to the same study, 4.14% of children aged 5 and 6 were not in school.

In 2010, according to data from the demographic census sample, of the total population, 783 911 inhabitants attended day care centers and / or schools. Of this total, 23 379 attended day-care centers, 73 219 were in pre-school education, 26 319 in the literacy class, 6 443 in youth and adult literacy, 362 029 in primary school, 125 275 in high school, 22 723 in Young adults and adults in primary education, 27 016 in the education of young people and adults in secondary education, 102,929 in undergraduate courses, 10,152 in higher education specialization, 3,104 in master's degrees and 1,324 in doctoral courses. A total of 200 457 inhabitants had never attended an educational institution. In 2012, the municipality had 1,132 schools offering primary education, of which 402 were public and 730 were private schools. Of the 308 institutions providing secondary education, 152 belonged to the public network and 156 were private schools. In 2012, the number of enrolled in elementary education was 342 920 and in high school, 111 887.

There are 54 higher education institutions in the city. The first of these was the Faculty of Law of Ceará, created in 1903. The universities present in the municipality are the Federal University of Ceará, the State University of Ceará, and the University of Fortaleza.

The Liceu do Ceará is the oldest college in the state and the third oldest in Brazil.

Health

The health indexes of the Fortaleza population are better than the Brazilian average. According to data from 2010, the infant mortality rate up to one year old was 15.8% in Fortaleza, against a Brazilian average of 16.7%. By 2013, 90.6% of children under one year of age had their immunization records up to date. In 2012, 37 577 live births were registered, and the infant mortality rate up to five years of age was 13.2 ‰. Of the total number of children under two years old weighed by the Family Health Program in 2013, 0.8% were malnourished.

In 2009, Fortaleza had a total of 35 general hospitals, of which 11 were public, 21 were private, two were philanthropic, and one was a trade union. Doctor José Frota Institute is the largest hospital administered by the Municipal Government, and the General Hospital of Fortaleza is the largest hospital administered by the State Government. In addition, it had 54 specialized hospitals and eight polyclinics. The total number of physicians working in the health network of the municipality was 13,604, approximately 5.4 per thousand inhabitants. Fortaleza has 117 units of health posts, three UPAs administered by the municipality and six administered by the state. The first hospital built in Fortaleza was the Santa Casa de Misericórdia, founded in 1861. Among the most important public health institutions in the city, the most important are the Dr. José Frota Institute, the largest hospital administered by the Municipal Government, and the General Hospital of Fortaleza, the largest hospital administered by the State Government. Among the private institutions, the largest are the Unimed Fortaleza Regional Hospital, Antônio Prudente Hospital, Monte Klinikum Hospital and São Mateus Hospital. There are also, in Fortaleza, three units of the Popular Pharmacy of Brazil.

One of the most important basic health programs in Fortaleza is the Family Health Program, within which the city is in third place in the country in extension of coverage, with hundreds of teams distributed in dozens of care units. The Emergency Mobile Care Service (SAMU) is the municipality's health care service, which serves an average of 200 daily occurrences.

Fortaleza is endowed with several medical courses, but the best and most traditional of them is that of the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Ceará, created in 1948, which manages a large structure of specialized health institutions between hospitals and clinics, Among them the University Hospital Walter Cantídio, leader in Latin America in liver transplantation. The Faculty of Medicine of the UFC is the 13th best medical school in Brazil, 2nd best medical school in the North and Northeast regions and the best medical school in Ceará. UFC's medical degree is still one of the most popular in the country.

International Airport

The current Pinto Martins – Fortaleza International Airport, located in the geographic center of Fortaleza, fifteen minutes from the main service areas and the border of Fortaleza, was built between 1996 and 1998, when it came to be classified as International. The airport is now undergoing an expansion process, from which the number of boarding bridges will increase from seven to sixteen and the passenger terminal will be expanded from 38,000 m² to 133,000 m². By 2014, the airport was capable of serving 6.2 million passengers per year, but after expansion, capacity would be 11.2 million.

Pinto Martins Airport is the third busiest airport in the Northeast Region and one of the busiest in the country, receiving on average 1,500 international aircraft and 65,000 domestic aircraft per year. In 2013, it received more than 5.9 million passengers. There are plans, however, for the construction of a second airport in the Metropolitan Region, in the Pecém area. The new terminal will be destined to the transport of cargoes and international flights, while the Airport of Fortaleza will maintain the domestic flights and executives.

The passenger terminal at the International Airport is totally air-conditioned and has four levels. There are direct flights to Bogota, Buenos Aires, Cayena, Lisbon, Rome, Frankfurt, Miami and Cape Verde. All major destinations in Brazil are also connected to Fortaleza.

Roads

In 2013, Fortaleza had a fleet of 908,074 vehicles, of which 511 109 vehicles, 229 154 motorcycles, 58 352 vans, 31 075 vans, 21 479 trucks, 15 557 utility vehicles, 6 563 buses, 6 507 mopeds, 3 567 trucks -trator, 3 263 micro-buses, plus 21 266 other types of vehicles. Traffic density at peak times in the city is rated as the fourth largest in the country, with 48% of congested roads. The cycle network of Fortaleza is composed of 116.4 km, of which 78.8 km are cycle paths and 37.6 km are cycle paths. The municipality also has a public bicycle system, Bicicletar, which had 40 stations and 400 units in April 2015. In 2015, the municipal taxi fleet was composed of 4 886 vehicles, including common, adapted and special use vehicles.

The land access to the municipality is made by highways BR-116, BR-020, BR-22], CE-090, CE-085, CE-065, CE-060, CE-040 and CE-025. The city's road transport system is regulated by the Fortaleza Urban Transportation Company (ETUFOR), an agency of the Municipality of Fortaleza, while the transit of vehicles is supervised by the Municipal Authority of Transit, Public Services and Citizenship (AMC). The collective transport carried out by buses is called the Integrated Transportation System (SIT-FOR), and its operation began in 1992. The system provides the user with options of transportation and access to the different zones of the city through the integration of single tariff in terminals Regional authorities. The SIT-FOR network is based on three types of lines: those that integrate neighborhood-terminal, those that integrate the terminal to the center of the city or to another terminal.

The system of traffic monitoring is known by the acronym CTAFOR, which stands for "Controle de Tráfego em Área de Fortaleza" (Traffic Control of the Area of Fortaleza).

Subway

The Fortaleza Metro is operated by Companhia Cearense de Transportes Metropolitanos (Metrofor). Founded on May 2, 1997, the company is responsible for administration, construction and metro planning in Fortaleza and its metropolitan region. The system is headed by the Government of the State of Ceará and has as current president Eduardo Hotz.

The Fortaleza Metro started its operations on June 15, 2012, in assisted operation. The commercial operation started on October 1, 2014, with collection of tickets, which was fixed at the same value in force in the Integrated Transportation System of Fortaleza (SIT-FOR), at that time 2.40. Currently operating 18 of the 20 stations planned for the South Line, in commercial operation, 9 stations of West Line metropolitan trains (to be converted into a metro system in the future) are 3 of the 10 VLT stations in Parangaba -Mucuripe, operating on an experimental basis without passenger transport. Possessing a projected extension of 69.4 kilometers distributed in 5 lines, connected by 53 stations, mostly under construction or in design. The system is part of the South (Central-Chico da Silva ↔ Carlitos Benevides, almost completed, with some stations still inoperative), East (Central-Chico da Silva ↔ Edson Queiroz, in early construction), West (Central-Chico da Silva ↔ Caucaia), Mucuripe (Parangaba ↔ Yacht, currently with 3 stations in experimental phase and 70% under construction) and Maranguape (Jereissate ↔ Maranguape). The system was designed to integrate with two of the city's seven road terminals, Parangaba and Papicu, and to connect to the Mucuripe Port passenger terminal and Fortaleza International Airport. Daily, the system currently carries 23,000 passengers.

MetroFor is the 43 kilometres (27 mi) rapid transit system for the city of Fortaleza.

Bus stations

Engenheiro João Tomé Bus station is the Fortaleza Bus terminal official name. Was Contstructed in 1973. It carries a daily average of over 8,000 passengers. 35 Bus companies and close to 200 bus lines. The bus station is centrally located within the city limits. Only 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the city centre and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Praia de Iracema Beach. Fortaleza bus station is accessible by at least 2 city bus lines: Av. Borges de Melo I and Av. Borges de Melo II. Fortaleza has multiple Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT, lines throughout the city and has plans to extend this network of transportation (BRTBrasil.org)

Bike lanes

Fortaleza officially has 116.4 kilometres (72.3 mi) of bike lanes.

Public Transportation Statistics

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Fortaleza, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 89 min. 30% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 24 min, while 52% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 6.8 km, while 10% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.

Sports

The most popular sport in Fortaleza, like the rest of Brazil, is football (soccer). The main games of the Ceará State Championship are played in Fortaleza. There are several association football clubs in the city. The most important ones are Ceará SC, Fortaleza EC and Ferroviário AC. It was one of the host cities of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Notable people

Twin towns – Sister cities

Fortaleza is twinned with: