Ribeirão Preto

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. Coffee, the “green gold” as it was called, was responsible for a kind of “gold rush” in the region, which attracted workers and adventurous people from several parts of the world. This movement was helped by the new Mogiana Railway, which linked Ribeirão Preto to São Paulo and to the port city of Santos, and by the abolition of slavery in Brazil, in 1888. The end of slavery created a strong demand for labor and the “coffee barons”, as the coffee farmers were called, stimulated European immigration - mostly from Italy but also from Portugal, Spain and Germany - to Ribeirão Preto. Later, after the stock market crash of 1929, several of these immigrants bought the farms from their indebted former employers. Ribeirão Preto underwent rapid growth during the 1980s and 90s due to a sugarcane boom, and now with a population of over 600,000 and a total metropolitan area of 1.4 million, it has become a lively and fun-loving city.

By plane

• Dr. Leite Lopes AirportAzul Brazilian Airlines: Belo Horizonte-Confins, Campinas, Porto Seguro, Recife, Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont, Goiânia. LATAM Brasil: São Paulo-Congonhas. Passaredo Linhas Aéreas: Brasília, Goiânia, Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo-Guarulhos

• Metropolitan Cathedral

  phone: +55 16 3625-0007
  address: Praça das Bandeiras - Centro

• Pedro II Theater

  phone: +55 16 3977-8111
  address: Rua Álvares Cabral, 370
  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

Museums

• History of Coffee Museum

  phone: +55 16 3633-1986
  address: Av. Prof. Zefferino Vaz

• History Museum

• Museum of Images and Sound

Parks

• Botanical Garden Park

• Curupira Park

• Fábio Barreto Municipal ForestContains a Japanese Garden.

• Luís Carlos Raya Park

• Maurílio Biagi Park

• Tom Jobim Park

• Ribeirão Shopping

  phone: +55 16 3902-1168
  address: Av. Coronel Fernando Ferreira Leite, 1540

• Shopping Santa Úrsula

  phone: +55 16 2102-7400
  address: Praça Barão do Rio Branco - Centro

• Le Petit Bistrot

  phone: +55 16 3911-4700
  address: Rua Thomaz Nogueira Gaia, 1116 - Jardim Irajá

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. Many small "alambiques" exist in the region, each producing its own unique pinga, better known as cachaça. These pingas are often aged and are available in many flavors, while still maintaining their flair. Pinguim is not the only good beer house in town either — Ribeirão Preto has a hot climate, which leads people to go out in the evening to chat and enjoy cold draft beers in bars, so the city is teeming with bars, from the simple botequins or botecos that one can find on almost every corner, to the most sophisticated pub style bars, which rival their counterparts in São Paulo and Rio.

• Cervejarium

  phone: +55 16 3911-4949
  address: Av. Independência, 3242
  This bar is run by Cervejaria Colorado, one of the first microbreweries in Brazil. In addition to the four varieties produced by Colorado, they offer around 150 other brews from around the world, in addition to some decent bar food.

• Pinguim 1 and 2

  phone: +55 16 3625-0519 and +55 16 3610-8386
  address: Rua Gal Osório, 408 and 389
  These two beer houses are the classic places to enjoy the local chope. Another two locations are also open at Santa Úrsula shopping center and Ribeirão Shopping.

Microbreweries

• Cervejaria Colorado

  phone: +55 16 3441-5090
  address: Rua Minas, 394
  One of the best regarded microbreweries in Brazil. Visits must be scheduled on their website (Portuguese only).

• Hotel Ibis

  phone: +55 16 3913-9139
  address: Av. Braz Olaia Costa, 691 Torre A - Jdm. Califórnia

• Hotel Nacional Inn Village

  phone: +55 16 3636-6464
  address: Rua Dq. de Caxias, 1313

• Hotel Prince

  phone: +55 16 3610-7790
  address: Rua Augusto Severo, 154

• Oásis Plaza Hotel

  phone: +55 16 3995-1000
  address: Av. Maurílio Biagi, 2955

• Shelton Inn

  phone: +55 16 3632-5955
  address: Rua Cel Luiz da Cunha, 400