Guaratingueta

Guaratinguetá lies in the Paraíba valley between the Serra do Mar and the Mantiqueira mountains. A chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony was built here in 1630, and the settlement became a town in 1651. In 1717 fishermen found an image of Our Lady of the Conception in the Paraíba River; devotion to the image later gave rise to the neighbouring settlement of Aparecida.