Campo Bom, Rio Grande do Sul(Brazil) (original) (raw)

The municipality of Campo Bom (57,169 inhabitants in 2004) is located 50 km north of Porto Alegre.
The first official bike path in South America was set up in Campo Bom; covering now 18 km, the paths connect business parks and residential areas.

Campo Bom ("Good Field") was named by tropeiros conveying cattle from the hinterland to Porto Alegre, who used to stop in the fertile pastures of the area.
Campo Bom was settled in 1826 by German colonists, who erected in 1828 the first Evangelic church in southern Brazil. The first pastor, Cristian Klingelhoefer, and his son, Herrmann, joined the Ragamuffin Revolution, being killed in a fighting with the imperial troops.
Grapevine cultivation was introduced to Rio Grande do Sul and, some say, to Brazil, in 1826 by an Italian wine-grower, Jo�o Baptista �rsi. Emperor Peter I ordered the President of the Province of S�o Pedro to offer him plots where he would produce wines "of the same quality as those produced in Europe". Using grapevine stocks imported from Italy, �rsi soon produced quality wines of the Reno type.

Campo Bom was once the 2nd district of the municipality of S�o Leopoldo, in spite of having no territorial connection with it. The municipality of Bom Campo was established by State Law No. 3,707 promulgated on 31 January 1959 and inaugurated on 6 June 1959.
The industrialist Cl�udio Enio Strassburger initiated in 1967 shoe industry, a main source of income for Campo Bom, duly represented on the municipal coat of arms.

http://www.campobom.net.br/
Municipal website