Joyful Harbor where five rivers feed a giant lagoon
Porto Alegre—'Joyful Harbor'—is capital and largest city of Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul. Official founding dates to 26 March 1772 under Manuel Sepúlveda (earlier 1769 activity under a pseudonym). It sits on Guaíba Lake's east bank where five rivers form Lagoa dos Patos, a vast navigable freshwater lagoon.
Settlement began in 1752, when 60 Azorean couples arrived, and the landing, then a port for Viamao, was called Porto dos Casais, the Couples' Port. Many settlers came up from the fortress town of Rio Grande to the south. Manuel Jorge Gomes de Sepulveda, who governed under the alias Jose Marcelino de Figueiredo, is credited with founding the town in 1769, though the official date is 26 March 1772, when a parish was created; it took its present name a year later. On 24 July 1773 it became the provincial capital, and from 1824 immigrants arrived from Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Lebanon, alongside Jewish newcomers.
The Farrapos War against the Brazilian Empire opened with a clash at the Azenha bridge on 20 September 1835, and rebels captured the city for a time. Port activity and shipyards later drove rapid growth. Porto Alegre gained worldwide attention hosting the 1963 World University Games, staged one of the largest rallies for free elections in 1985, and became famous as the first city to adopt participatory budgeting. The World Social Forum met here five times, starting with its first three editions; the third drew 20,763 delegates from 130 countries.
The city sits at the northern end of the Lagoa dos Patos, on the eastern shore of Guaiba Lake, where five rivers including the Jacui meet in a delta; the lagoon can carry the largest ships, making the city a major river port and industrial centre. Forty hills break up the terrain, and an archipelago of islands offshore shelters rich wildlife, while the municipality holds 28 percent of the state's native plant species. Its humid subtropical climate swings more between seasons than any other Brazilian capital, with windy, rainy winters that dipped to minus 0.7 degrees in 2012. Floods from heavy rain struck the city in 2024.
About 1.4 million people lived there in 2022, the country's eleventh largest city, and it celebrates gaucho culture with churrasco and chimarrao, even as favelas, traffic and crime persist.
Source: Porto Alegre
