Ribeirão Preto is a city in North São Paulo, São Paulo state. Nicknamed "The Capital of Agrobusiness", it is the largest city of the entire northwestern half of the state, and a powerful economic center. Ribeirão Preto has a valuable cultural heritage, and it is a major regional center for shopping and nightlife.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons contributors.
The city was founded June 19, 1856, by farmers coming from the southeast of São Paulo State in search of good climate and soil for coffee growing. The city was laid by a stream called Black Creek, and was named after it. Eventually the farmers’ choice revealed itself as very adequate and the fertile soil of the Ribeirão Preto region allowed the highest crop productivity in Brazil. The rapid development of the coffee cultivation brought wealth and progress to the city, which by the 1880s had become the largest coffee producer in the world.
Metropolitan Cathedral, Praça das Bandeiras - Centro, ☏ +55 16 3625-0007. Pedro II Theater (Teatro Pedro II), Rua Álvares Cabral, 370 (Praça XV de Novembro), ☏ +55 16 3977-8111. M-F 09:00-11:00, 15:00-17:00. Built in the boom years of the 1920s, this opera house is the third largest in Brazil and is home to the Ribeirão Preto Symphony Orchestra, one of the oldest in the country. Seven Chapels (Sete Capelas). History of Coffee Museum (Museu Histórico do Café), Av. Prof. Zefferino Vaz, ☏ +55 16 3633-1986. History Museum (Museu Histórico). Museum of Images and Sound (Museu da Imagem e do Som). Botanical Garden Park.
Le Petit Bistrot, Rua Thomaz Nogueira Gaia, 1116 - Jardim Irajá, ☏ +55 16 3911-4700. Tu-Sa 19:00-02:00, Sa Su lunch 13:00-16:00.
An important moment for the city occurred in 1911 with the opening of its first factory, the Antarctica Brewery Company. It was Antarctica which built the Pedro II Theatre, and its new factory led to the opening of several beer houses in the city. One of them, named Pinguim (penguin in Portuguese, after the Antarctica logo), became particularly famous and made Ribeirão Preto nationally renowned for the quality of its draft beer (chope or chopp). Many people say that Pinguim has the best draft beer in Brazil, and it has become so important that it is now a symbol of the city; people say that coming to Ribeirão Preto and not visiting Pinguim is like going to Rome and not seeing the Pope.
Guide content from Wikivoyage contributors (CC BY-SA) — abridged; the full article has much more.
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In Aug, Ribeirao Preto typically sees ~30°C daytime highs and 2 rainy days.
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