Catu
Encyclopedia
Catu is a city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

 in Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. Its population is 48648 . It is located at 12°20′59"S 38°22′59"W.

Catu is a prosperous city, with a prominent petroleum and commercial sector, both of which are equally well developed. It is known for its irregular topography and is located on the BR-110 between Salvador
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...

 and Alagoinhas
Alagoinhas
Alagoinhas is a city in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It is located at around . It was founded in 1852. In 1974, the city was made the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alagoinhas....

, approximately 78 km from the former and 32 km from the latter. It is part of Salvador's Metropolitan Region.

Origins

When the Portuguese arrived in Bahia, the Patachó and Tupiniquim
Tupiniquim
Tupiniquim is the name of an Amerindian tribe who now only live in three reservations . All three are located in the municipality of Aracruz in northern Espírito Santo state, southeastern Brazil. As of 1997 their population was 1,386...

 indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 inhabited the territory where the city is presently situated. These early inhabitants moved inland to the sertão
Sertão
In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia that Lusitanian explorers encountered. In Brazil, the geographical term referred to backlands away from the Atlantic coastal regions where the Portuguese first settled in South America in the early sixteenth century...

, in order to escape Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

 persecution.

Up to 1782 historical facts are few and imprecise. The area where the city of Catu was built on is known to have integrated the captaincy
Captaincy
A captaincy is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a captain general.-In the Portuguese Empire:...

 of the count da Ponte, whereto many colonists migrated. It was left to the Catholic Church to take the first steps towards the foundation of the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 of Santa do Catu, enclosing the vast territory.

In 1787, the then 12th Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...

 of Bahia, Dom Antônio Correia, founded the parish. Nearly half a century later, on July 23, 1830, priest João Nepomuceno Moreira de Pinho, the vicars of Santana do Catu and of Alagoinhas met to remove the limits of their parishes and came to an agreement. The new divisions were recognized on June 26, 1863 by the president of the Province, Dr. José Bonifácio Basconcelos de Azambuja.

Santana do Catu became a city on July 26, 1868.

Administration

With the inception of provincial law number 1058 on July 26, 1868, the municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

of Santana do Catu was created, containing territory from the previously called Vila de São Francisco.

In the administrative division of 1911 Brazil, the municipality was composed of the districts Santana do Catu (main district), Pojuca and São Miguel, losing Pojuca with law number 979 of July 29, 1913, which promoted the district to a municipality. Santana de Catu had its name simplified by the state Decree number 7455 of July 23, 1931, which was validated by the Decree number 7479, of July 8 of the same year. It was promoted to a city on March 30, 1938.

Since state Decree number 11089 of November 30, 1938, Catu is formed by three districts: Catu (main district), Bela Flor (formerly São Miguel) and Sítio Novo, and since May 29, 1966 it is the headquarters of Comarca.
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