Goiânia

Sister cities

• Sesto San Giovanni
• Manaus
• Seattle
• Tarapoto

History

The idea of creating a new state capital had been bounced around from early on in the state of Goiás. The first plan came from D. Marcos de Noronha who in 1753 wanted to establish the state capital in the municipality of Pirenópolis; again in 1863 José Vieira Couto de Magalhães put forward a plan to move the capital to the edge of the Araguaia river. The impetus behind the efforts to move the state capital was the need to locate it in accordance with the economic interests of the state. The first state capital, Vila Boa (today City of Goiás), had been chosen when the economy was based on gold extraction. Later, when cattle-raising and agriculture came to dominate the state's development, the old capital was considered remote. Legislators kept the idea of change alive for a long time. In 1891, the constitutional delegates officially included the idea of transferring the capital in the constitution, which was ratified in 1898 and again in 1918. Vaguely remembered until 1930, the idea became a reality during the government of Pedro Ludovico, who was the new governor appointed for the state of Goiás after the military revolt of 1930. In 1932, a commission was created to choose where the new capital would be built. The choice was the municipality of Campinas. The mayor at the time, Andrelino Rodrigues de Moraes, accepted the plan and donated about 242 acres of his land to build the new state capital. In 1933 the commission decided on the present location and the foundation stone was laid. The plan was for a city of 50,000 with the shape of a concentric radius — streets in the form of a spoke, with the Praça Cívica as the center, with the seats of the state and municipal government — the Palace of Emeralds and the Palace of Campinas. In 1937, a decree was signed…

Geography

The city has a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen: Aw) with an average temperature of . It has a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around . The lowest temperature ever recorded was on July 18, 2000, in the suburbs. was the lowest recorded downtown, on July 9, 1938. However, such lows are very rare. Temperatures may fall below every winter, mainly in the suburbs. The highest temperature ever recorded was on October 7, 2020. The "cerrado" landscape is characterized by extensive savanna formations crossed by gallery forests and stream valleys and includes various types of vegetation. Humid fields and "buriti" palm paths are found where the water table is near the surface. Alpine pastures occur at higher altitudes and mesophytic forests on more fertile soils. More than 1600 species of mammals, birds and reptiles have been identified in the cerrado, including 180 reptile species, 113 amphibians, 837 birds and 195 mammals (WWF). Among the invertebrates, the most notable are the termites and the leaf-cutter ants ("saúvas"). They are the main herbivores of the cerrado, important to consuming and decomposing of organic matter, as well as constituting an important food source to many other animal species.

Most-observed species

• Great Kiskadee

  Pitangus sulphuratus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  3,328
• Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

  Brotogeris chiriri (Vieillot, 1818) · Aves
  3,293
• Picazuro Pigeon

  Patagioenas picazuro (Temminck, 1813) · Aves
  3,219
• Ruddy Ground-Dove

  Columbina talpacoti (Temminck, 1810) · Aves
  2,946
• Rufous Hornero

  Furnarius rufus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  2,758
• Saffron Finch

  Sicalis flaveola (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,688
• Southern Lapwing

  Vanellus chilensis (Molina, 1782) · Aves
  2,402
• white-eyed conure

  Aratinga leucophthalma (Statius Muller, 1776) · Aves
  2,368