Colonial Expeditions

Ponta Grossa had its territory traversed from the 16th century, when the Campos Gerais were crossed by Spanish expeditions that demanded of the Santa Catarina coast until Asunción, in Paraguay. Later it was successively moved on account of the seiscentistas bandeirantes, notably for capture of the natives.^[18] Portuguese bandeirantes like Aleixo Garcia passed in 1525, five years later Peró Lobo and Francisco Chaves. In 1541 passed the Spaniard Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca who had some conflicts of tribes not too distant. Also, it is reported the passage of a non-Iberian: Ulrich Schmidel, a German mercenary in Spanish service, that during the course of his travels in the region brought 20 Paraguayan natives and four other mercenary German soldiers in Spanish service from the current paulista coast.^[19]

Tropeiros, people who used mules and donkeys to transport goods (normally called muleteers in English) used the region as a route,^[20] the landscape in the form of a field became welcome to pass with mules and in the future cattle ranching.

At a later point some former tropeiros settled in the area and began to farm. Much of the products from these new farms was used for the feeding of animals used by the muleteers. Other muleteers settled down and started farming because events like floods disrupted the distribution of their goods and so they had to take their losses and began new activities.^[21] Preferably, the tropeiros chose to settle near the banks of the Verde and Pitangui River.^[19]

These new farmers caused a need for trade which lead to the creation of villages. There were also settlements called freguesias. The later is the word used originally to describe Ponta Grossa and other cities in the region.^[21]

The actual possession of the land, for purposes of occupation and colonization, which resulted in the founding of the city of Ponta Grossa, took place from 1800, about a century or more after the area began having regular visits from muleteers.

Beginnings of organized settlement

When the settlement first began the Campos Gerais were under the jurisdiction of Vila Nova de Castro.^[18]

The first settlers who settled here were farmers from the state of São Paulo. They chose this area due to the abundance of natural pastures and the beauty of the Campos Gerais. They settled in the environs of the rivers Verde and Pitangui. Shortly after Benedictines of the Monastery of the Saints obtained grant of these fields, that called Santa Bárbara Farm. However, in 1813, the interim governor of the Province of São Paulo, D. Matheus Abreu Pereira, donated these same lands to the lieutenant Atanagildo Pinto Martins, a bandeirante from Paraná who traveled through and surveyed the way of the Fields of Palms. The Benedictines protested, claiming acquired rights, presenting the Term of concession, but nothing of value was worth the appeals, finishing the immense area in possession of bandeirante Atanagildo.^[18]

Fixed Settlements

Tropeirismo remained in the early twentieth century

It was not long before, and he was lord of the Campos Gerais, the Captain-General José Góes e Moraes. Along with Pedro Taques de Almeida (besides others of noble lineage) that required territories between the left bank of the Itarare River and the headwaters of the Tibagi River,^[21] they donated part of his lands to the Jesuits who in the vicinity of São Miguel Riverside, a tributary of the Pitangui River, erected the Santa Bárbara do Pitangui Chapel. where they established the Curato of the Company of Jesus that in no time knew extraordinary progress.^[18] But the route of the main road was diverted, causing a stagnation of the growth of the city where the first built chapel.^[19]

At the same time, the fields were systematically occupied, with the emergence of large cattle ranches.

One important project of this time was the Bom Sucesso Farm. It was established by sergeant-major Miguel da Rocha Ferreira Carvalhães. The farm covered the area that today constitutes the urban perimeter of Ponta Grossa.^[18]

Prior to 1750 when the Treaty of Madrid was signed, Ponta Grossa was in theory part of the Spanish Empire, but the Spanish do not seem to have exercised much actual cobtrol in the region.^[22] The Santa Bárbara chapel, constructed by Jesuit reductions to the control of the Spanish government was used by oratory by the tropeiros and travelers of Campos Gerais from 1727 by donation of sesmaria of Itaiacoca or the Pitangui. With the abolition of slavery, what did not continue with the catechization and slavery, even with religious groups that came later. Not far from the farm, in the 1970s human bones were found possibly from the slaves of the time.^[23]

Where today is the Metropolitan Cathedral, there was a ranch of inn, erected by tropeiros, next to a centenary fig tree, under which they planted a cross. It was there the point of stop of troops and travelers. Another point of reference at this time was the Casa de Telhas (in English: House of Tiles), constructed by the Jesuits for relate with people of the region. In this house were celebrated the offices of the sacrament and religious festivals. In a short time, around the Casa de Telhas appeared the first huts.^[18] In addition to serving as Church to hold celebrations was a place of rest. It is believed that the construction of the same was an attempt to press the elevation of Ponta Grossa, until then a neighborhood of Castro to a freguesia. A cemetery and a chapel had also been built. It is he historic moment than the version of the pigeons appears for the choice of place due to divergence between the farmers,^[19] described in the sequence.

Domingos Teixeira Lobo, Antonio da Rocha Carvalhães and Benedito Mariano Fernandes Ribas were three early settlers who saw a need to give the settlement a clear legal distinction.

They felt this would solve the difficulties of ecclesiastical matters and civil litigation, since they were under the far off jurisdiction to Vila Nova de Castro. It is reported that Carvalhães would have ordered his foreman, Francisco Mulato, to look for a suitable place in the Boa Vista winter estate to start a new settlement. The place chosen would have been the current suburb of Boa Vista. When fulfilling the mission Francisco Mulato would have said "Sinhô knows well because it is leaning in that capon that has the thick tip".^[18]

Santa Bárbara Chapel, where the settlement would begin before the change of location.

Having approved the name but not the location, the group of farmers decided that the place of the future settlement would be where a white pigeon with a red ribbon bow on the neck, loose in the prairies, would stay overnight. After many flocks, the bird landed exactly on the cross of the ranch of the tropeiros, under the centenary fig tree existing there, having been interpreted as a good omen and predestination, for the effective settlement of Ponta Grossa.^[18] A chapel was built with the help of the inhabitants there, being here the central focus of growth of the old village.

Although the above account exists in folklore there are no contemporary documents that support this as the actual origin of the city.

The dove is used as a symbol by the municipal government appearing in the anthem, the flag, the coat of arms and the march.^[14] Some sources give the name Estrela, as an early name of Ponta Grossa, "because it could be seen of some leagues of distance, situated in the middle of the fields, on an eminence as the present city is still" (Land of the Future – Nestor Victor).^[18]

Consolidation

It was not until after 1800 that Pinta Grossa becane a city. Until then it was an agrarian environment inhabited mainly by subsistence farmers. Criatório (where the cattle are handled) and invernagem (rest period of animals) stimulated trade. So that the farmer "returns" to becomes tropeiro again. Through the agriculture do not effective and as consequence the urbanization process is slow.^[21]

On 15 September 1823, through the Imperial license, the Freguesia of Estrela was created. The first vicar of the locality was father Joaquim Pereira da Fonseca. In 1840 the patrimony was increased, by area denominated Rincão of the Round and donated by Domingos Ferreira Pinto. By the Provincial Law nº 34, of 7 April 1855, the municipality of Ponta Grossa was created, with territory split out of the municipality of Castro, being duly installed on 6 December of the same year. The Provincial Law nº 82, of 24 March 1862, elevated the town to the category of city.

On 15 April 1871, through Law 281, it was renamed Pitangui. Very shortly after that it was named Ponta Grossa on 5 April 1872. Ponta Grossa passed the seat of Comarca on 18 April 1876, by Law No. 469, and was installed on 16 December of it, assuming on this date as the first Judge Conrado Ericksen.^[18]

In 1878, at the initiative of Augusto Ribas, large scale settlement of ethnic Germans migrating from the Russian Empire Russian-German began in the municipality,^[24] two years after the visit of the Emperor Dom Pedro II, main incentive of the immigrations, when he stayed in the residence of Major Domingos Pereira Pinto to whom granted the title of Baron of Guaraúna.^[25]

The state government also encouraged through the figure of Lamenha Lins. By the middle of the nineteenth century, altogether 2,300 ethnic Germans from the Russian Empire arrived in the region. This immigration was in part fueled by the arrival of the railroad.

The presence of the railroad also lead to other groups of immigrants coming to the city. This included Slavs, Italians and some people from southwest Asia.^[19]

Saudade Railway Station opened in 1900 with neoclassical and art-nouveau architecture.^[26]

The city experienced great progress from 2 March 1894, when the Curitiba-Ponta Grossa Railroad was inaugurated^[27] (the road facilitated the connection between cities and offered work opportunities^[19]), and two years later the construction of the São Paulo-Rio Grande do Sul Railway began. their situation, here have been installed for a long time, the offices and workshops of the railways. Where train maintenance of train. Although some writers consider as something also idealized, the construction of the railroad was important, being Ponta Grossa an entrocamento region. Viewed as city-crossroads due to the construction of highways and roads that gave this geostrategic favoring. The railroad was important for the modernization of the city as well as its growth in the 20th century.^[28]

In the early years of the Brazilian Republic, the farmers began to suffer the scarcity of labor, so the main economic source became the yerba mate and wood.^[19]

In 1904, when Ernesto Guimarães Villela was mayor, the electric lighting system provided by Guimarães' company Ericksen & Filho was inaugurated and the water and sewage system designed and supervised by engineers Alvaro Souza Martins and Jacob Schamber has implemented it only concluded with funding from the state government by Mayor Teodoro Batista Rosas. The centennial of the foundation was celebrated in the administration of the mayor Brasílio Ribas.^[18]

On 17 October 1930, Getúlio Vargas and his troops arrived at the train station, which would remain in the republic for fifteen years.^[29] On this occasion Getúlio walked through the city streets alongside Lieutenant-Colonel Galdino Luís Esteves and Aristides Krauser do Canto, being cheered by the population who waved red handkerchiefs and flags, symbols of the revolution.^[18] Until the 1950s, Ponta Grossa was the main city in the interior of the state of Paraná, due to the railways, factories processing the yerba mate, leather and wood processing as well as ceramics workshops, among which the production of bricks. This changed when cities were emerging in the north of the state (for example: Londrina and Maringá) attracted by the coffee economy. Even with the prominence that the cities of the north had been obtaining and other cities that appreciated the construction of highways, the axis Ponta Grossa-Curitiba would have been important in the dynamics of the coffee flow. In addition to banking, administrative and commercialization of manufacturing and primary resources. Although it is also affected when there were economic problems in the cultivation of coffee.^[28]

The 1970s marked the beginning of Ponta Grossa industrial phase, linking to the grain and food sector. In 1990, it expanded its tertiary sector, in addition to receiving logistic and production companies due to its geographic role.^[30] Ponta Grossa was the birthplace of great names of Paraná politics, being known as "Civic Capital of Paraná" (in English: Civic Capital of Paraná).^[18]

Administrative division

On 5 December 1931, it acquires the old municipality of Conchas that happens to be district (Decree nº 2,439). In letters from 1936 and the following year, Itaiacoca appears as another district that on 31 March 1938 was renamed Cerrado (State Decree-Law No. 6,667), returning to the old name on 20 October of the same year (State Decree- Law No. 5773). On 30 December 1943, Conchas became known as Uvaia (State Decree-Law No. 199). On 11 September 1957, the district of Guaragi, an extinct municipality named Entre Rios (State Law No. 3,315), being was incorporated of Palmeira. Piriquitos was the last district to be declared. Created on 13 March 1962 (State Law No. 4,556), leaving it to be a district in the 21st century. Today, in all, they are the previous four, including the headquarters.^[31]

Climate

On the Koppen classification is Cfb, typical of the plateaus of southern Brazil which is usually attributed as subtropical of the highlands with mild or warm summers. Although far from the coast has a strong oceanic influence combined with altitude.^[37][38] The average annual temperature is 63.5 °F (17.5 °C). Winters are cold to their latitude, but are generally mild to be considered temperate as the true ocean climates. The average temperature in the winter (July) is from 56.7 °F (13.7 °C) and in the summer (January) is from 70.5 °F (21.4 °C), a high temperature average relatively low for the location.^[39] In the plant hardiness of the USDA the city is in zone 9b in almost your totality, in the same zone that the Central Florida^[40] by which it allows the growth of the genus Pinus, among other subtropical species.^[41] The various valleys are important to create microclimates with different temperatures and humidity. Heat islands can occur in the Downtown and Santa Paula (besides the urban density is associated too with the predominant direction of slopes).^[42]

Cherry trees can survive in a subtropical climate, as shown in the example of Ponta Grossa

According to data from the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET), Brazilian institute, referring to the period from 1961 to 1973 (until 28 February), the lowest temperature recorded in Ponta Grossa was 21.7 °F (−5.7 °C) on 9 June 1967,^[43] and the highest reached 94.5 °F (34.7 °C) on 3 November 1968. The largest accumulated precipitation in 24 hours was 5.1' (130.5 mm) on 13 February 1966.^[44] Other large accumulations were 4.4' (110.9 mm) on 6 May 1970 and 3.9' (100 mm) on 4 July 1965.^[45] The lowest relative humidity was recorded in the afternoon of 9 June 1967, at 14%.^[46][47] Other years recorded were 1975^[48] and 1981.^[49] Usually can stay up to 20 years without the occurrence, other times the interval may be 2 years.^[50] Frosts are the most common winter event, about 5 annual freezes.^[38]

August and July are the driest months due to the cold and dry polar air mass advance. January and February are the most humid due to the humidity that advances from the tropical Atlantic, in addition to the evaporation itself in hot periods generating the short and fast convective rains. However, on average the relative humidity of the air is always high. The number of sunshine hours does not change much during seasons.^[51][33] Tornados and cyclones are rare and there is no history of at least great damage since the beginning of occupation, fortunately. Although there are amateur videos that detected the presence of tornado on 19 December 2010.^[52] The fog is a common winter event, which can contribute to the cause of accidents and delayed flights.^{[53][54][55][56][57]}

Ecology

NDVI applied to the urban area during a drought at the end of winter 2017

In ecological terms it is diversified. The composition and species varies according to climatic, pedological and rock formation. The biota differs from region to region. One of the ecosystems found are of field vegetation similar to North American prairies. Tree vegetation is rare, usually dominated by grasses and herbaceous. Sometimes it is interspersed with shrubs. Covering an area of 22,800 ha in 1996.^[33] The origin goes back to the own sandstone units found in the urban and rural environment.^[59] The trampling of the herds is responsible for the modification of the location and quantity of species that live in these fields. The renovation of the pasture is done by the slash-and-burn, a technique used a long time ago. Other paradigms for the original conservation of the vegetation is the inclusion of some species with seeds, decharacterizing the original phytogeographic region. The backing for affirmative is also indicated for the presence of agroindustries. Part of the lack of conservation is to for consider the fields as a monotonous vegetation without diversity.^[60] It usually appears in regions of smaller altimetric oscillations (for example: Furnas Formation in Itaiacoca or in the elevated portions of Uvaia with the Itararé Formation).^[33] Or also on poorer soils that do not have a long depth and is sandy, as seen near the Escarpa Devoniana towards the east of the municipality.^[59] There are two main types of photole vegetation: dry fields, formed in relatively flat places, usually in lithosols and poor cambisols. Among them are the Colchão Glass and the Forquilha Glass. It usually exists where there is no grazing, like east of the host district. The other subcategory, the dirty fields, has a few shrubs dominated by vassouras and maria-moles (and/or assa-peixes). There is the wet version with species adapted to humidity that arise in depressions.^[33]

Barão do Rio Branco, central square more vegetated with remnants of Araucaria angustifolia

Native vegetation of Araucaria moist forests is also found, in total there are 23,500 ha,^[33] being therefore the largest natural ecosystem found in the area. Until the Pleistocene was dominated a drier climate that assists the presence of fields, however, as the climate began to become wetter at the end of the geological period and so it was advanced appearing mainly near ciliary or gallery forests (such as those found near the Cara-Cará River or Olarias Arroyo^[59] and in municipal conservation units such as Boca da Ronda and Chácara Dantas^[61]) and around springs and slopes of the escarpment.^[62] One of the largest areas of forest is located in the District of Guaragi.^[33] It could have expanded more, but delayed by the fires (in some situations generating the tiguera, then capoeira and in its last stage the campo sujo, in English: dirty field, subtype of undergrowth) which was replaced by other phases of fields.^[62] Despite the predominance of Araucaria angustifolia, other species of arboreal species are found. However, the symbolic species of Paraná is the one that reached its climax.^[33] Among the other species found are imbuia, types of cinnamon, monjoleiro, cedar, guabiroba and bravo pine. Tapexengui, fumo bravo, red scarlet and pau cigarra are found below the canopy. Wildwood was drastically reduced by deforestation as well as by the use of wood until around the 1950s. Such use was replaced by exotic species such as Pinus elliottii. Over time, there was a feedback policy on the amount spent for replanting forests.^[60] Although araucarias often appear in the gallery forests in extremely humid areas the tree does not develop, and then emerges xaxins and samambais as found in the Serra do Mar among other species. In the district of Itaiacoca there is an influence of the Atlantic Forest, reducing the amount of native conifer in opposition to the increase of sapopema and imbuia, more similar to that found in the vicinity of the capital of Paraná.^[33]

Geology and geomorphology

The city has a rich geological heritage. It is located on the Paraná Sedimentary Basin (morphostructural unit^[63]) of Paleozoic age on the Crystalline Basement presenting metamorphic and igneous rocks. Pre-Cambrian igneous rocks of the Cunhaporanga granitic complex are the exception because do not belong of the sedimentary basin covering a large part of the state.^[64] Within the larger structure that models the relief is the morphosculptural unit represented by the Second Planalto modeled by climatic influence to millions of years of similar origins and modeling.^[65] The relief is gently undulating (though rugged) exhibiting prominent hills and points. Furnas and ruiniform reliefs are present within its political limit. Rivers like the Tibagi accompany the slope, as posteriorly prescribed, while others, like the Pitangui, cross deep valleys between the steep relief towards the 2nd plateau. To the northeast the altitudes can exceed 1800 meters, places where it finds the greater slopes. Larger elevations are explained due to the passage of the topographic step known as Devonian Escarpament to the east and northeast of Ponta Grossa. Devonian sandstone rocks are the basis of the geological substrate: Furnas and Ponta Grossa, above are carboniferous sandstones of the Itararé Group. Each unit is intercepted by dikes and mesozoic sills^[66] as a consequence of the separation grooves of the South American and African Plate, where the breakage began.^[67]

The sandstones of the Ponta Grossa and Furnas Formation are in the form of shales (when they touch disintegrate on leaf or layer forms) of siltstone or clay structure. It deposited as a result of the basalts of the Serra Geral Formation. The rivers and sediments flowing downstream from the mineral compound are responsible for Cenozoic deposition.^[68]

Sandstone of the Vila Velha Park, mystically known as the "City of Lost Stones", remembering an ancient city of ruins

It is famous the sandstone of the Vila Velha Park, an example of ruiniform relief. In geological terms the forms visualized are recent, originated during the gondwana megacontinente, where South America was linked to Africa, Oceania, Antarctica and India. In which the ruins lie in the Carboniferous period was a more southern latitude covered by glaciers. The landscape itself was formed after several burials and erosive processes. Different shapes can be found: flutes, dissolution cones, pointed tops, towers and pillars. Although the popular saying has long ago explained that Vila Velha was originated by the action of the wind, geological research however has been stating that it is the fruit of rainwater, action of the solar energy, changes in temperature and activity of living beings on the rock (in discontinuities and shear zone).^[69]

Hydrography

The main drainage basin that covers Ponta Grossa is the Tibagi River (original indigenous denotation "Tibaji"), tributary of the Paranapanema River^[33] in a hierarchy with the Paraná River. Tibagi covers 6.5% of the entire area of the municipality,^[78] its tributaries are the Pitangui River which in its margin is subdivided into: Verde, Cará-Cará and Botuquara known in the city.^[79] There are no major watercourses on the left bank.^[80] The municipality also has the source of the Ribeira River within the Campos Gerais Park in a depression with altitude much smaller than the urban area and it is found in the 1st Planalto (Plateau of Curitiba).^[79][81]

The area is considered well irrigated even if it has relatively small basins outside the Tibagi River that covers the whole region. With the retention of moisture has its rapid displacement to the main water flows.^[33] Some of the region's rivers are affected by structural controls. Many times it accompanies faults, fractures and dikes in the direction of the Arch of Ponta Grossa (NW-SE). In addition the route of these rivers accompanies a high altimetric gradient that favors the construction of hydroelectric power plants, so much that some barrages are in functioning as in the Pitangui River.^[82] The drainage pattern normally found is radial.^[83]

Pitangui River

Pitangui River, one of the most important rivers of the municipality was dammed in 1939 originating the Dam of the Alagados. The same is responsible for the water supply in the city, also by the direct capture of the river. There are, however, problems associated with aggradation and eutrophication.^[84] The presence of agriculture, industrial effluents and vehicular traffic instead of the riparian forest affects the chemistry of water with levels of chlorides, phosphors and alkaline.^[85]

In all there are 12 drainage basins in the municipality. They are: Ronda, Olarias, Pilão de Pedra, Lajeado Grande, Santa Tereza, Cará-Cará, Francelina, Santa Monica, Grande Arroyo, Taquari, Colônia Adelaide and Gertudes.^[79] Of these, there are four streams that are born in the urban perimeter, they were buried and channeled for greater integration of the city. In the past they will have historical importance, but today some watercourses are treated as "sewage" by the local population. Others like arroyo de Madureira had bathing status.^[86] With rapid urbanization and without efficient public policies, several arroyos, especially in the 1980s, were occupied by irregular housing. By that it aggravated the quality of the municipal air, a singular characteristic before other cities of Paraná.^[87]

Limits

It borders seven municipalities as a whole, although their downtown may be more than 56 miles (90 km) in some cases. To the north are the towns of Castro and Carambeí and Tibagi, to the south are the towns of Palmeira and Teixeira Soares, to the east is the city of Campo Largo, and to the west is Ipiranga.^[33]

Race and Color

According to the archives of the region (now state) of São Paulo in 1824 there were 75.1% of whites, together with a small share of pardos (4.8%) and free Afro-Brazilians (0.1%), reaching 80%. Historical data of the Sant'Ann Parish exposes 92.52% whites, with only 6.66% of pardos and 0.82% of Afro-Brazilians. The number of natives was not evaluated. For the same year, 76.52% of Afro-Brazilians and 23.48% of pardos were among slaves. But due to the purchase and sale it is possible to change the values. It is from 1832 that in the maps the natives begin to appear, oscillating to less than 1%.^[100] Due to the history of European colonization and slavery not so present as in other regions, even in Paraná, the population is predominantly white. The black population declared is smaller than cities with lower population size such as Cascavel, Foz do Iguaçu and São José dos Pinhais. At the same time the number of whites is lower in these cities, but in relation to "Princess of the Fields" is proportional to their fourth place by total number of people. The indigenous population is larger than Maringá, which has a larger population, and Ponta Grossa is behind only the two largest cities in the state. The yellow population is the smallest in proportion to the number of inhabitants in front of the five largest cities of Paraná, with values closer to cities between 100 thousand and 200 thousand inhabitants, being surpassed by some cities of Paraná, especially in the north of the state.^[101] The self-reported white population is higher in the center (91.3%) and the lowest in the south of the city: Cará-Cará (72.6%).^[99] The black population has greater expression in Santa Cruz and Sutil, between the limits of Ponta Grossa and Palmeira where they are quilombola refugees, coming from the coast and first plateau.^[102][103]

Internal Migration

The migration by internal population contingents follows a geographical logic of proximity and flows. The population also underwent changes due to the limit of the municipality that normally went until the Santa Catarina border to the south, since the registries was by the area covered by the parish. It is noticed that between 1823 and 1879 of the residents of Ponta Grossa who live in the same country or had origin in some city of Paraná (305 people or 8.9%) or of São Paulo, in a greater number: 462 people (13.5%) Among the Paraná cities that contributed most to the population increase were Castro (for historical and economic reasons), followed by Campo Largo, Palmeira, Lapa, São José dos Pinhais, Curitiba, Itapetininga, Itapeva and Sorocaba. But it was not just the two states that made up the population of the city. Rio Grande do Sul had its participation in consequence of the tropeirismo, mainly with the cities of the north of the state: Passo Fundo, Vacaria and Cruz Alta. Other cities that have emerged along the Way of Viamão as well as Ponta Grossa also appear in the origin of the resident princesinos like Lages in Santa Catarina (6 men and 4 women).^[104] In recent history Ponta Grossa has received interstate migrants between 1990 and 2010, as a consequence of the dynamics of flows to the mesoregion centers, as has also been occurring in other attractive urban areas of the state.^[105]

Immigration

Russians, Germans, Poles and Austrians form the largest group of immigrants of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By the civil registry in the Sant'Ana Registry, one of the principal of the city, the largest registry of grooms between 1889 and 1920 are from the previous three, which proves the affirmative. They are 257 Poles, 102 Germans and 64 Austrians, with booms in different decades according to the biggest waves of immigrants.^[106] Since 1870, Empire politicians have encouraged European immigration to the country, considering their advanced agricultural techniques and seeking to fill areas. Although inhabited, were often surrounded by forests and depopulated regions such as the case of Paraná. Other reasons were the lack of the basic foodstuffs.^[107][108] Most of the population was focused on yerba mate production and there were no more slaves for free labor.^[22] Immigrants were brought in with the ideal of being French-style "progress" for the city, based on other large urban centers.^[92] Russian-Germans of the banks of the Volga River were added in 1878, 2831 settlers that lived in Octavio Colony, the first in the city (divided locally in 17 nuclei), that moved towards the richer grounds due to the failed harvest, as an alternative the labor was sought in the production of coal by pine knot, this time occupied by Europeans of the center-south of the continent: Germans, Italians and Poles. The most famous Teuta-Brazilian was Henrique Thielen, reimmigrated back to Brazil and who was the director of the Antarctica Brewery. Or the Italian Eugenio Bocchi, a businessman from a soap factory from Curitiba who lived in the city. During the same period Dom Pedro II was in the city and heard the complaints, especially on the ground poor between the east and northeast of the municipality. Taquari and Moema had the best conditions. And the Adelaide Colony stood out for the transport of mate taken by wagons to Curitiba.^[107][108] Colonies of Guarauna, Guarauninha, Taquary, Rio Verde, Eurydice, Trindade, Dona Adelaide, Botuquara, Tavares Bastos, Floresta, Itaiacoca, Moema and Tibagi together with the Octavio Colony, 975 people are added to the balance of municipality and adjacencies.^[22]

Between 1885 and 1886 an immigration society was created in Ponta Grossa. It was the responsibility of the federal government to create propaganda to "force" the migrations, and also the construction of the railroad. Still on the railroad was important for the solidification of the city and especially the commerce. In the last decade of century XIX marks the arrival of the Syrians. They provided workers to the road and were known for the production of farm and haberdashery. Neighborhood such as Uvaranas, Dona Luiza and Ronda were formed by immigrants. Usually associated with some specific technical work or service, thus forming the local workforce.^[107][108] Jews and Greeks as too Syrians-Lebaneses were important to local commerce.^[109] Other ethnic groups include arabs that reflect in the gastronomy.^[110] Independently of the origin, a large part of the immigrants had importance for the economic base of Ponta Grossa, several commercial establishments and services were created, from tailoring to butchers and same industrial activities. Emerging, therefore, as social actors of the city. In coexistence with different social classes and ethnicities.^[92]

Germans

The choice of Ponta Grossa, among other South-Brazilian cities was due to bioclimatic conditions more similar to the Low Volga, not far from the Caspian Sea. When they got the settlements, they established a long street (Strassendorf) occupied on both banks.^[111] Among the German immigrants, some re-emigrated from the Dona Francisca Colony (from 1875 in the present city of Joinville^[112]). Jens Jansen came riding from Curitiba to Ponta Grossa establishing in the farm of Jose Miró, in 1877 he lived in Colônia Moema, time that came a leads directly to the city. Many families were adapting to different places, like some that came from Santa Catarina. But the settlement itself was between 1877 and 1879 mainly. Some colonies were separated due to the religious aspect, Tavares Bastos, for example was Catholic different from other groups of Lutheran tradition. It is believed that the cost of housing an immigrant was 60 milreis.^[113] The assistance of Alfredo Heinsler to the Volga Germans is remarkable. In 1927 he and the immigrants celebrate the centennial of immigration. Besides the Otavio Colony, the oldest settlement of the Volga Germans, there were other immigrant villages such as the Euridice Colony in the Chapada Neighborhood where there is the house of August Jansen, one of these immigrants from the period with his name indicated in his house.^[114] Among other colonies were formed, subdivided of the oldest colony such as: Moema, Tavares Bastos, Conchas/Uvaia and Dona Luiza. Guarauna was one of the largest with 322 settlements, followed by Adelaide (142) and Tavares Bastos (112).^[115] Family farming and livestock were base. This as well as other colonies did not obtain success with the planting of wheat that had been replaced by other cereals.^[114] Trade was also practiced, usually located in areas that were not typically agrarian, but in transition to urban. Many of them moved to the city end of the same century. The ability of woodworking by these immigrants is recognized.^[92] Due to failure, there were only 323 families left in Brazil Republic, out of 615. They were usually seen as persistent because they tried to get their crops to succeed. Dom Pedro II was during the repercussion on the poor soils of the Campos Gerais.^[116] Volga Germans were encouraged not to lose their customs of their ethnic origin by which they were replicated in written publications.^[117] In 1917 were registered in Ponta Grossa 84 Germans, is the second largest German community, being behind only of Curitiba. In the following year it is surpassed by Guarapuava, remaining in the third place with 29 new registered immigrants, adding between 1917 and 1918 to the whole 9.7% of the police record of Paraná.^[118]

Polish Church (in Portuguese: "Igreja dos Polacos") built in 1898, as the number of immigrants grew, in 1928 another was built in the Gothic style.^[119][120]

Population pyramid

Ponta Grossa, as well as the southern half of Brazil, live a demographic transition period, where the largest population is no longer in the children's zone, but has not yet reached the highest peaks in adulthood, a trend of the future. The number of elderly people has been increasing, although in larger proportion in the Female sex. The population over 65 years of age reaches 21416 (2010, 6.87% of aging index). Currently, considering the 2010 census, the largest age group is between 15 and 24 years old, therefore a predominance among adolescents and young people, giving the population pyramid a "beahive" shape rather than the previous pyramid shape of the previous two decades. There are other phases of higher growth in relation to age bands before or after them, such as 5–9 years (before) and 10–14 years (after). However, the number of inhabitants 80 and older is not so different as the number of 1-year-olds (4109 vs 4376). Over 30 years old there is predominance of female gender, an opposite situation in the infantile-juvenile phase, where the male sex loses only at the age of 7 years. In a total balance, women predominate (51.43%) with 160249 residents of the sex, a proportion similar to 1991. Men corresponded to a figure of 9,000 below the total number of women, altogether 151362 (48.57%). In the last decade the ratio of adolescents' dependence on the financial issue has reduced to less than half, in 1991 it was 60%.^[129][130]

Religion

As the main colonizers were Iberians and descendants of other regions of Brazil during the first settlements and emergence of farms, the main religion is the Roman Catholic Church. In turn it reflects even in the mode of establishment of the city (settlement linked to the location of the parish and patrons of Catholicism). And it interrelated with the history of the "Princess of the Fields", as the Santa Barbara Chapel founded by Spanish Jesuits is the oldest of the Campos Gerais, founded in the eighteenth century. Even the decree was in devotion to St. Anne. Known as the grandmother of Jesus in the Catholic tradition the same is the patroness of Ponta Grossa and by the strong influence of religion on 26 July is municipal holiday. The construction of the chapel was in 1823 in a former shelter of tropeiros that marks the beginning of the village. Other buildings that are also part of the religious patrimony are the Immaculate Conception Church ("the little church of Uvaranas") and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church ("the church of the Poles"). Religious festivals take place annually as Feast of the Divine Holy Spirit and of the Lady Saint Anne. The city houses the Resurrection Monastery and a monument dedicated to the bible.^[132] On 16 December 1929 the Diocese of Ponta Grossa was created, Cardinal Henrique Gasparri took on on 23 February 1930. Bishop Antônio Mazzarotto built spaces that provided for the formation of religious as seminaries and congregations of religious sisters.^[133] Since 5 September 2003, bishop Sergio Arthur Braschi is the bishop of the Diocese of Ponta Grossa.^[134]

For the 2010 census, 209,678 people identify themselves as Roman Catholics (67.29%). The second largest in number is the Evangelical Church in general with 74842 followers (24.02%). Among the religious minorities with more than 1,000 believers are Spiritism (2.35%), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (0.89%), Jehovah's Witnesses (0.48%) and other Christian religions summed up (0.47%). Hundreds of people follow Buddhism (0.10%), Umbanda (0.04%), Esotericism (0.06%), Catholic Churches that do not obey the papal hierarchy (0.14%) and new Eastern religions as a whole (0.04%). Other religious groups are usually isolated in proportional numbers of families as if they were from the same kinship or few expressive in percentage terms. The number of people without religion is greater than the number of believers of the major non-Christian religions in the municipality. They are 11422 who declare that they have no affiliation with an institution of any creed (3.67%), although only slightly more than a tenth identify themselves as either an atheist (0.29%) or an agnostic (0.06%). People like more than one religion reach 0.32% and do not know 0.04%. Religions that are generally classified as Christian add up to 286,414 people or 91.91% of the city's population. Adding a value of 4.41% for other religions.^[135]

There have been events to bring Christian religions closer together like the Semana de Oração pela Unidade Cristã (in English: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity). A project of ecumenical reconciliation, involving biblical symbols between institutions.^[136] The diocese of the municipality studies reactivating the hermitage, seen prominently for people who pass through the BR-376 and see the Vila Velha Park and see the structure in the shape of an elongated cone. It became a shrine on 25 July 1983 designed by Bishop Geraldo Pellanda. The same falls within a religious tourism project. Periodic celebrations should be held as well as gatherings, retreats and events. However, it was passed to the technical analysis of the responsible environmental agency in the state.^[137] During the first week of October 2018, it was authorized the reform of the hermitage with a budget of 300 thousand reais (77800 dollars^{[lower-alpha 5]}) and it is very likely to reopen in 2019 for religious tourism with the support of the local tourism foundation. The sanctuary emerged in the late 1970s.^[139]

Productive sectors

For the 2006 data of the Master Plan/ParanáCidade Institute, the largest share is in wholesale trade, but the number of retail establishments is much larger.^[150]

Attractions

Vila Velha State Park

Furna that has the panoramic elevator, known as "Furna 1".

The Vila Velha State Park was created on 12 October 1953, being listed as Historical and Artistic Heritage of Paraná on 18 January 1966, remaining closed between 2002 and 2004 for revitalization. Access is via BR-376 and is about 28 km from Ponta Grossa and 84 km from the capital of Paraná. The park is a conservation unit under Brazilian law and is administered by the Environmental Institute of Paraná. Much of the route, visitation takes place through trails. What most calls the attention of tourists is the features (which often resemble objects) of the exposed sandstones that originate from erosion and weathering, giving off particles during the melting of the rocks. These that formed on the sand deposit in the Carboniferous, 360 million years ago (Ice age). There is no consensus on which is the main agent, although it certainly involves the action of water. In its area it also has the furnas that are "depressions that resemble craters", there are six furnas in the place, but only two are open to visitation, in one of them there was a panoramic elevator, currently disabled. Also located in the park is Lagoa Dourada, which is also a valley hat was silted up using the material from the Guabiroba River that it has been receiving for being in its floodplain, similar to what occurs in Lagoa Tarumã. The name is due to the reflection of sunlight on the mineral mica present in the place.^{[177][178][179]}

On 19 February 2020, private action on the park's infrastructure is authorized, authorized by the state governor, Ratinho Júnior (PSD). Eco Parques do Brasil S/A will have 30 years to explore, however, environmental management will continue to be public.^[180] Activities such as tree climbing, cycling and zip line must be implemented. Ticket sales, maintenance, monitoring and all necessary support are one of the obligations of the company that won the bid.^[181] However, for some professors and researchers, administration should remain only in the public sphere.^[182] However, it can be beneficial in terms of visibility and visitors as long as it has the least possible impact, in addition to adapting to the location.^[183]

View from inside Buraco do Padre where there is a natural pool.