Vitória, Espírito Santo

Vitória, officially Portuguese Município de Vitória, is the capital of the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo (ES). It is located 530 kilometres northeast of Rio de Janeiro on the nearly 97-square-kilometre island of Ilha de Vitória on the Baía de Vitória bay, where several rivers flow into the Atlantic Ocean. The city was founded by Portuguese on 8 September 1551 and had 327,801 inhabitants at the 2010 census and an estimated 365,855 inhabitants as of 1 July 2020, called Capixabas. The metropolitan area of Vitória, with the immediate neighbouring municipalities of Cariacica, Serra and Vila Velha, has a population of over two million (2020).

The city lies an average of 12 meters above sea level. The climate is tropically humid, with average monthly temperatures of 24 °C in winter and 30.4 °C in summer.

Vitória is the seat of a Catholic archbishop, a federal university (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, or UFES) and an honorary German and Austrian consulate.

In 1998, the United Nations rated Vitória as the city with the fourth best quality of life in Brazil, despite the fact that its immediate surroundings have a high crime rate that cannot be contained. Greater Vitória's murder rate, for example, is higher than São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro (murders per 100,000 inhabitants). In the first half of 2003, 59 public buses were robbed in Greater Vitória alone.

The Atlantic archipelago of Trindade and Martim Vaz, located far off the coast, is part of the city of Vitória.

Vitória is connected to the BR-101, one of the most important federal highways in Brazil, which follows a large part of the country's Atlantic coast from north to south.

History

The town was founded shortly after the arrival by the owner of the Espirito Santo Capitanate Vasco Fernandes Coutinho (1490-1561) in Vila Velha (today a neighbouring town). At first he settled the colonists there, but the mainland quickly became too dangerous due to attacks by Dutch and French traders, so the island became home to the colonists. Vila Nova do Espírito Santo, as the settlement was initially called, was founded on September 8, 1551, but later renamed Vitória in memory of the battle against the Goitacases (Brazilian natives) led by Vasco Fernandes Coutinho.

During the first half of the 19th century, Vitória was considered a backward, agricultural town. The economic capital of Espirito Santo at that time was Cachoeiro de Itapemirim. It was only after the proclamation of the Republic as the form of government in 1889 that it was decided to modernize the federal capital.

In 1892, Muniz Freire began his four-year term by improving the infrastructure and drawing on an investment loan of 700 million French francs. His idea was to establish Vitória as an export location through improved infrastructure. From 1894 onwards, the growth of the city and the increasing activity of the ports were clearly visible.

In 1908, Jerônimo Monteiro became governor of the state and continued urban planning. During his reign, Vitória drew level with Cachoeiro de Itapemirim as an economic center. This was further supported by the completion of the railway between these two cities in 1911. In addition, many projects were realized, such as the construction of schools, the Moscoso Park and the hospital "Santa Casa da Misericordia", as well as the establishment of the Municipal Archives, the Library and the State Museum.

In 1989, the four-lane bridge Ponte Deputado Darcy Castello de Mendonça, commonly known only as 3ª Ponte between Vila Velha and Vitória was put into operation. In the meantime, this has become the main connection between the two cities and is therefore often overloaded. Traffic jams at peak times are the order of the day.

Population development