Parnanguara

Paranaguá lies on a sheltered bay on the southern Brazilian coast, below the forested Serra do Mar. Rivers reach the bay from the mountains and coastal plain, while islands and channels protect its waters from the Atlantic. Indigenous communities inhabited this shore before Portuguese settlement.

The discovery of gold drew prospectors into the rivers and hills around Paranaguá in the seventeenth century. The settlement was raised to a vila in 1648, becoming an early centre of Portuguese authority on this part of the coast. The new town had a council and courts, institutions through which settlers governed the growing community. News of the mines drew further attention from the Crown, and routes over the mountains linked the bay with settlements on the plateau, including Curitiba.