Campinas

The city was founded on July 14, 1774, by Barreto Leme. It was initially a simple outpost on the way to Minas Gerais and Goiás serving the "Bandeirantes" who were in search of precious minerals and Indian slaves. In the first half of the 19th century, Campinas became a growing populational center, with many coffee and sugarcane farms. The construction of a railway linking it to the city of São Paulo and Santos' seaport, in 1817, was very important for its growth. In the second half of the 19th century, with the abolition of slavery, farming and industrialization attracted many foreign immigrants to substitute the lost manpower, mainly from Italy. Coffee became a large export item and the city got increasingly richer. In consequence, a large service sector was established to serve the growing population, and in the first decades of the 20th century, Campinas could already boast as having an opera house, theaters, banks, movie theaters, radio stations, a philarmonic band, two newspapers, (Correio Popular) and Diário do Povo, a good public education system (with tne Escola Normal de Campinas and the Colégio Culto à Ciência), and hospitals, such as the Santa Casa de Misericórdia (a charity for poor people) and the Casa de Saúde de Campinas (for the Italian community), and the most important research center in agricultural sciences, the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, which was founded by Emperor Pedro II. Finally, the construction of the first Brazilian highway in 1938, between Campinas and São Paulo, the Anhanguera Highway, was a turning point in the integration of Campinas into the rest of the state.

Campinas was the birthplace of opera composer Carlos Gomes (1836--1896) and of the President of the Republic Campos Salles (1841--1913). It was home for 49 years for Hércules Florence, reputed as one of the early inventors of photography, photocopying and the mimeograph.