Piratini

Piratini lies in the hills of southern Rio Grande do Sul, between the grasslands of the interior and the coastal lagoon country. Azorean families arrived in 1789 and formed a settlement in this contested Portuguese frontier. The town became a centre for the surrounding ranching district. In 1830 the parish became a vila, with jurisdiction over a large area of the southern interior.

During the Ragamuffin War, rebels proclaimed the Rio-Grandense Republic in 1836. Piratini’s council supported the new regime, and the town was chosen as its capital. The political upheaval brought the struggle between provincial rebels and the Brazilian Empire into this small inland settlement, whose position lay away from the coast and its imperial strongholds. Its council formally declared support for the republic in November, after the rebellion had begun the previous year.