Map - Ribeirão Preto (Ribeirão Preto)

Ribeirão Preto (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁibejˈɾɐ̃w ˈpɾetu]) is a municipality and a metropolitan area located in the northeastern region of São Paulo state, Brazil.

Ribeirão Preto is the eighth-largest municipality in the State with 650.9 km2. It has an estimated population of 720,216 in 2021 and a metropolitan area of 1,178,910. It is located 313 km from the city of São Paulo and 706 km from Brasília, the federal capital. Its mean altitude is 526.8 m high. The city's average temperature throughout the year is 23 C, and the original predominant vegetation is the Atlantic forest.

The city originated around 1856 as an agricultural region. Coffee was a primary income source until 1929 when it lost value compared with the industrial sector. In the second half of the 20th century, investment in health, biotechnology, bioenergy, and information technology led to the city being declared a Technological Center in 2010. These activities have caused the city to have the 30th biggest gross national (GNP) in Brazil.

The city is also an important cultural center. The Mayor Luiz Roberto Jábali Park, the Maurilio Biagi Park, Carlos Raya Park, Santa Tereza Reserve, and the Zoo are important preservation areas. Pinguim Beerhouse, Dom Pedro Theatre, and projects such as Ribeirão Preto's Cinema Center are relevant sightseeing points, along with events such as the Agrishow Agricultural Fair, Tanabata Festival, Joao Rock Music Festival, and the National Outdoor Book Fair.

The municipality was founded June 19, 1856, being populated initially by farmers and African slaves coming from other areas of São Paulo (especially from Mogi Mirim and São Simão) and Minas Gerais looking for land with good pastures. The city was built by a stream called Black Creek, and was named after it (Ribeirão Preto means black creek in Portuguese, sometimes translated as "Black Stream"). The fertile soil of Ribeirão Preto region allowed a high crop productivity.

Initially the main rural activities were pastures, cattle and subsistence agriculture. In the 1870s, the coffee crop arrived to Ribeirão Preto. The rapid development of coffee cultivation brought wealth and progress to the city, which by the 1880s had become the largest coffee producer in the world. Coffee, also called "green gold," caused a "gold rush" in the region, which attracted workers and adventurous people from many parts of the world. This movement was helped by the new Mogiana Railway, linking Ribeirão Preto to São Paulo and to the port city of Santos, and by the abolition of slavery in Brazil, in 1888. The end of slavery created a strong market for labor, and "coffee barons", as coffee farmers were called, also stimulated immigration. Immigrants coming from Europe (mostly Italy, but also from Portugal, Spain and Germany) and from Japan have settled in coffee farms of Ribeirão Preto and neighboring towns. Some of the immigrants, especially the Italians, were settled at the "Núcleo Colonial Antonio Prado" (Antonio Prado Colonial Nucleus) which was created by the government in 1897. This nucleus originated many of the northern and eastern districts of Ribeirão Preto. Later, after the stock market crash of 1929, some of the immigrants bought the farms from their impoverished former employers.