page_title: Itatiaia
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Itatiaia / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Snow in the Itatiaia National Park in 1985. Português: Neve no Parque Nacional de Itatiaia em 1985.
context_page_description: Itatiaia is a Brazilian municipality of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is located at an altitude of 390 meters. Its population was 29,996 in 2014 and its area is 224.96 km².
  The oldest Brazilian national park, Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, is located in the municipality.
  The municipality also contains part of the 8,036 hectares Pedra Selada State Park, created in 2012.
context_section_description: Its history is more than 160 years, being 5 of April 1849 officially accepted as the date of its foundation, with the name of "Beautiful Field". There are ancient documents that record settlement in place for at least seven years from that official date.
  In Brazil Colony, the current territory of the municipality was inhabited by Tamoios, Puris and Coroados Indians. The presence of the white man only came in the Bandeirantes trail, the need for the gold to flow in Minas Gerais to the ports of Angra dos Reis and Parati forced the descent down the mountain in the route where Mauá exists today, or through Serra do Picu, where Itatiaia is today.
  The Lambert Almanac, dating from 1850, indicates that the region had been occupied in previous decades by the miners who, having exhausted the gold mines, would have definitely gone down the mountain looking for land where they could settle.
  It was from this time that the largest farms in the region were formed, such as Cachoeira, Itatiaia, Belos Prados, Campo Belo, Serra da Fazenda, Fazendainha and Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, Barão de Mauá, the latter corresponding to current area of the Itatiaia National Park, with its forests preserved thanks to its owner not having adhered to the coffee monoculture.
  It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the village of Campo Belo emerged with the installation of the District of Peace and Tabelionato in 1832. In 1839 the Ecclesiastical Curato of São José de Campo Belo was installed. Campo Belo was elevated to the village by Federal Law n. 311, of March 2, 1938.
  On December 31, 1943, Decree Law no. 1,056 gave the fourth district of Resende and Vila de Campo Belo the expressive name of Itatiaia.
  In the winter of 1985, snow was recorded in the National Park of Itatiaia (see Climate section for details).
  
  On 1 June 1989, Itatiaia became officially a municipality.
caption: Snow in the Itatiaia National Park in 1985, where the temperature in that year had a minimum record of -13 °C (8.6 °F).
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