Belém City

Santa Maria de Belém do Grão Pará, one of this city's first names, was established in January 12th, 1616, and it gathers a great historical potential in these 393 years.

Belém began with the narrow streets of the Cidade Velha (Old City), a district which still keeps some constructions that the Portuguese colonization has built here, places like Forte do Castelo, a fort built to defend the region against French, Dutch and British colonization attempts, and one of the first constructions in the capital. Escaping a little of the past nostalgia, coming to the Pará capital and not visititing the Ver-o-pêso market is the same as not having come to Belém at all. In the biggest open market of the Latin America, you can find everything, from the most exotic fruit, up to the miraculous scented baths that have the power to make a person fall in love with you. Mysticism or not, this makes part of the culture of whoever lives in Belém.

The capital also has the afternoon rain that falls almost at the same time every day; it has the devotion to Our Lady of Nazareth, which always brings together more than two million people in the second Sunday of October. During this day, the streets become true human rivers.

Belém is a city that breathes culture.