Mairi

Mairi is an Indigenous name associated with the site of Belém, at the mouth of the Pará River. The settlement occupies a strategic point on the Guajará Bay, where the waters of the Amazon estuary open toward the Atlantic. The island of Marajó lies across the estuary to the north. Rivers and channels give access to the interior, while the surrounding lowlands support dense tropical vegetation.

In 1616 Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco and his men built the Forte do Presépio and a chapel here, establishing the Portuguese settlement that became Belém. The fort helped secure the entrance to the Amazon after the Portuguese conquest of Maranhão from the French. In the eighteenth century Belém grew as a colonial administrative and commercial centre; construction of its cathedral began in 1748.