European architecture
In the centre.
Josue Marinho — CC BY 3.0 · Wilson Schuelter — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Herr stahlhoefer — Public domain · Herr stahlhoefer — Public domain · Herr stahlhoefer — Public domain
São Bento do Sul is a city of about 86,000 people on the northern plateau of Santa Catarina, near the Paraná border and some 250 kilometres from Florianópolis, known for its cool climate and the European character brought by its Central European settlers. The first Europeans believed to have crossed its land were the Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his 250 men in 1541, on their journey on foot and horseback from Santa Catarina Island to Asunción. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Xokleng groups moved through the area, before immigrants settled it in the nineteenth century. It is one of the state's main industrial towns, especially for furniture, ceramics and textiles, and once accounted for most of Brazil's furniture exports. Visitors come for its European-style architecture and quiet hill-town air on the road between Joinville and Curitiba.
In the centre.
On the plateau.
Industrial history.
São Bento do Sul, northern plateau, Santa Catarina state
About an hour's drive up to the plateau.