Local cheeses
European traditions.
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Colônia Witmarsum is a rural community founded by immigrants of German origin in the municipality of Palmeira, in the Campos Gerais region on Paraná's second plateau, between Curitiba and Ponta Grossa. It was founded in July 1951 by Mennonites who moved here from the town of Witmarsum in Santa Catarina. They belong to the Russian-German Mennonites, whose roots go back to Friesland in today's northern Netherlands and Germany, and they brought their language and farming traditions with them. The colony draws visitors with its quiet countryside, dairy products, cheeses and European baking, and a rare geological site, the Witmarsum glacial striations, marks of the great ice age between 360 and 270 million years ago, when ice covered the southern part of the ancient Gondwana supercontinent. It makes a good half day in the country.
European traditions.
Ancient ice age.
Rolling countryside.
Palmeira, Campos Gerais region, Paraná
Marks scored in the rock by ice hundreds of millions of years ago, when it covered southern Gondwana.