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Pirenópolis (Goiás) (Brazil)

Last modified: 2012-02-11 by ian macdonald
Keywords: pirenópolis | goiás |
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Pirenópolis, GO (Brazil) image by Dirk Schönberger, 29 April 2010

based on http://www.pirenopolis.go.gov.br/pirenopolis/simbolos.html


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About the Flag

A vertical tricolor red-white-blue, with the municipal arms on the central stripe.

Municipal web site is at http://www.pirenopolis.go.gov.br
Dirk Schönberger, 29 April 2010

The municipality of Pirenópolis (23,065 inhabitants in 2010; 2,228 sq. km) is located in central Goiás, 120 km of Goiânia. Pirenópolis was founded in 1727 by the Portuguese gold miner Manoel Rodrigues Tomar as Minas de Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Meia Ponte. Made a "vila" in 1832 and a "cidade" in 1853, it was renamed Pirenópolis in 1890. The local legend says that the name of the municipality was given by Spanish colonists coming from the Pyrenees mountains. They also named the local mountain range Serra dos Pireneus. Pirenópolis, once a rich town exporting gold and cotton, was known as the Goiás Athens. It was the first town in the State with a library and a cinema. The first newspaper in the Centro Oeste, "Matutina Meiapontense", was printed in Pirenópolis by Commander Joaquim Alves de Oliveira, with Father Luís Gonzaga de Camargo Fleury as its editor-in-chief. From 5 March 1830 to 24 May 1834, 526 issues of the newspaper reflected the ideas of the local elite. Including, without any censorship, letters to the editor and satires, the "Matutina Meiapontense" also served as the official gazette of the presidents of Goiás and Mato Grosso. The town of Pirenópolis was registered as an historical monument in 1989.

Lagolândia, a hamlet of Pirenópolis, is the birth place of Benedita Cipriano Gomes (1905-1970), better known in Brazil as Santa Dica. Aged 16 years, she miraculously "resurrected" following a cataleptic crisis and became the "saint" of a messianic movement quickly banned by the authorities. In 1925, Dica and her disciples were expelled from Lagolândia. Portrayed by the painter Tarsila do Amaral, Dica also led a group of 150 men who struggled in the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 and founded in São Paulo the socialist utopia called "Angels' Town".

The coat of arms of Pirenópolis is made of three layers. On the 1st layer, a "polliana" (Allamanda angustifolia Pohl, Family Apocynaceae) - a flower endemic of the Serra dos Pireneus, the symbol of the local flora and the municipal flower, the riders of the stampede (one Moor and one Christian), a mask, a "zabumba" drum, a scroll inscribed "Pirenópolis 7 de outubro de 1727" [7 October 1727]. On the 2nd layer, the Holy Spirit, the Crown of the Emperor of the Feast of the Holy Spirit, a "cruzeiro", the mother church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário, the Pireneus, a mask and the bridge over river Almas. On the 3rd layer, yellow, representing the blessing by the Holy Spirit.

Ivan Sache, 23 January 2012