| A smiling city with highly sophisticated education and culture |
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| CURITIBA BRAZIL |
| Affiliated on May 14, 1984 |
![[photo]](img/p01.jpg)  Curitiba is the capital of the state of Parana in southern Brazil, located
about 400 km southwest of Sao Paulo and about 700 km from Rio de Janeiro.
The city, situated on a plateau about 900 m above sea level is blessed
with a mild climate. In the local native's language, Curitiba means, "An
abundance of pine tree". The city was started and developed by those
who looked for gold and settled Bilinya (the present Tiradentes Square)
down by the Atuba river. Today the city has beautiful streets with high-tech
building surrounded by museums, parks and churches. It is also known as
a less polluted city. The economic growth by mining of natural resources,
commerce and cultivation of mate tea in the past few decades, industrialization
and urban development have been promoted, and public investment in many
fields is getting brisk.
Himeji city was recommended to establish a sister city affiliation with Curitiba by the governor of Hyogo prefecture in 1980 and was affiliated on May 14, 1984 after many consultations by friendship delegations sent to South American from Hyogo. Curitiba is a culturally rich city which has a lot of cultural facilities such as art museums and museums with the Guaira Theater, the largest theater in South and Central America, being at the top. It is also a historic university town that has lots of universities and educational institutions. The wide range of exchanges in fields of education and culture has been carried out with Himeji city.
Curitiba is also a multiracial city that has a great number of immigrants from Europe and Asia including Japan but Portuguese is spoken in daily life. People have a kind and tolerant temperament and love to greet friends with hospitality. Curitiba, the town dubbed as "smiling city" by the poet Hermes Fontes, is loved as the city which makes visitors feel at home. |
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