Cataguases
Cataguases | |
|---|---|
| Municipality of Cataguases | |
 Cataguases City Hall | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
 Location in Minas Gerais | |
  Cataguases Location in Minas Gerais  Cataguases Location in Brazil | |
| Coordinates: 21°23′20″S 42°41′49″W / 21.38889°S 42.69694°W | |
| Country |  Brazil |
| Region | Southeast |
| State |  Minas Gerais |
| Intermediate region | Juiz de Fora[1] |
| Immediate region | Cataguases[1] |
| Founded | 26 May 1826[2] |
| Municipality installed | 8 September 1877[2] |
| City status | 13 September 1881[2] |
| Districts | Cataguases (seat), Aracati de Minas, Cataguarino, Glória de Cataguases, Sereno, and Vista Alegre[2] |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | José Henriques[3] (MDB[4]) |
| • Term | 2025–2028[3] |
| Area | |
• Total | 491.767 km2 (189.872 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 169 m (554 ft) |
| Population | |
• Total | 66,261 |
| 67,732 | |
| • Density | 134.74/km2 (348.98/sq mi) |
| Demonym | cataguasense[5] |
| Time zone | UTC−3 (BRT) |
| Area code | 32 |
| HDI (2010) | 0.751 (high)[5] |
| GDP per capita (2023) | R$32,290.72[5] |
| Website | www |
Cataguases is a municipality in the southeastern part of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It had a population of 66,261 in the 2022 census, with an estimated population of 67,732 in 2025, in an area of 491.767 km2 (189.872 sq mi).[5] It is mainly an industrial centre (textile, metallurgy, clothes) with a strong influence of coffee plantation in its early history (19th century).
History
In the 1920s, the city was associated with the Brazilian cinema pioneer Humberto Mauro and a generation of writers for the short-lived Revista Verde. Humberto Mauro shot there some films that earned him a good reputation nationwide. He later made Braza Dormida (Sleeping Fire) and O Descobrimento do Brasil (The Finding of Brazil) and was a reputed Tupi language scholar.
Industrialisation changed the town significantly and caused some of its citizens to become very rich in the 1920s and 1930s. As a result, the city centre was remodeled accordingly to the ultimate architecture styles. The architect Oscar Niemeyer and painters Cândido Portinari, Djanira and Emeric Marcier are some of the Brazilian artists who left contributions there at that time.
After three decades of wealth, the town lost its prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. The economic crisis and the changes due to the modernisation of the industries provoked high unemployment rates and depreciation of salaries, reducing the town's wealth.
In 2003, the town was the site of an ecological accident caused by the spilling of chemical waste that affected the brook Cágado and the rivers Pomba and Paraíba do Sul, threatening the water supply of more than 20,000,000 Brazilians (including the state of Rio de Janeiro).
Geography
Climate
Cataguases experiences a tropical savanna climate (Aw under Köppen climate classification). Temperatures are high (above 18 °C (64.4 °F)) all over the year, and low temperatures lasting for a whole day are rare, and generally only occur in the dry season. The wet season starts in September and goes until May, while the dry season goes from May to September. Floods are not uncommon in the town, and generally there is one per year, in December, January or February. On the other side, during the dry season Rio Pomba has considerably less water than in other periods, and some people have respiratory diseases related to low air humidity.
Temperatures
| Climate data for Cataguases | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 31.8 (89.2) |
32 (90) |
31.9 (89.4) |
29.9 (85.8) |
27.8 (82.0) |
25.9 (78.6) |
26.7 (80.1) |
28.5 (83.3) |
29 (84) |
29.8 (85.6) |
30.5 (86.9) |
31.2 (88.2) |
29.6 (85.3) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 21.7 (71.1) |
21.9 (71.4) |
21.3 (70.3) |
19.2 (66.6) |
16.4 (61.5) |
14.4 (57.9) |
14.3 (57.7) |
15.1 (59.2) |
17.2 (63.0) |
19.4 (66.9) |
21.3 (70.3) |
21.1 (70.0) |
18.6 (65.5) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 241.2 (9.50) |
186.8 (7.35) |
127.4 (5.02) |
55.9 (2.20) |
29.5 (1.16) |
11.3 (0.44) |
22.4 (0.88) |
14.7 (0.58) |
47.9 (1.89) |
99.4 (3.91) |
197.4 (7.77) |
203.0 (7.99) |
1,236.9 (48.70) |
| Source: World Climate | |||||||||||||
See also
References
- 1 2 "Divisões regionais do Brasil" [Regional divisions of Brazil] (in Brazilian Portuguese). Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. 2017. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "História" [History] (in Brazilian Portuguese). Prefeitura Municipal de Cataguases. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
- 1 2 "Órgão Oficial do Município" (PDF) (in Brazilian Portuguese). Prefeitura Municipal de Cataguases. January 2025. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
- ↑ "Cataguases (MG): José Henriques (MDB) vence Eleições 2024 e é eleito prefeito". UOL (in Brazilian Portuguese). 6 October 2024. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Cataguases" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
External links
Media related to Cataguases at Wikimedia Commons
