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On one side the sea, on the other lagoons. The region where Maceió is located
always was a land extremely humid and given to floods. Since it is surrounded by a lot of Water, a part of the land where the city is located
was called “maçaiok” by the Tupi Indians and means something like “Point that plugs up the flooded”. The whole area belongs to the mouth of
the Mundau River and was closed little by little with the passing of the centuries.
The extensor plantations of sugar cane around the city contribute to the
peculiar landscape of Maceió and are connected with the life of the population. The place started to grow economically in the 17th
century when the cultivation of the sugar cane leg an to prosper. Until today, the sugar cultivation has an enormous importance for the state,
the second largest producer of the country, only coming after São Paulo.
The sugar cane is so present in the lives of the inhabitants of Maceió, that the
city itself had its origin in a mill. A small chapel was built by the residents of a farm, who counted also with a financing of land owners in
the interior for the construction of a Municipal Council and jail and a Pillory. The region was know as Largo da Capela and became the center
of the village, before receiving the name of the Largo do Pelourinho. Today, the Largo do Pelourinho is called Praça Dom Pedro II.
To drain the production of sugar cane from the sugar mills, the books anchored
in the historical district of Jaragua. The area had many warehouses and storage sheds, where the stocks of catton, sugar cane and grains were
stored. A port was built there which collaborated for the growth of the city that leg an as a district. The place was completely restored and
has the most agitated bars and restaurants of Maceió.
In the beginning of the 19th century, in 1815, Maceió stopped being
just a simple settlement and received the little of Village. With the financial prosperity, the government decided to transfer the capital of
the state of Alagoas to Maceió which was in Marechal Deodoro before.
In this way, in 1839, Maceió received the tiller of capital at the same time that
it was considered a municipal.
That was when the changes in the structure of the city began to occur. The old
church of São Gonçalo was demolished for the construction of the cathedral Nossa Senhora dos Prazeres. The old alleys were widened and new
streets and squares were demarcated.
Today, the capital live basically from exploring sugar cane and coconuts. Maceió
also invests in infrastructure projects to increase the tourism , because very few places in Brazil an in the world that have so many
natural attractives. |
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