Map - Siderópolis

Siderópolis is a municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.

Siderópolis (Nova Belluno) is one of the first Italian settlements in Brazil. The arrival of Italian immigrants in the region is related to the great migration of Europeans to various parts of the world that took place by the end of the 19th century. They migrated especially to the Americas, searching for better living options fleeing the squalid living conditions that came to be because of the European Industrial Revolution. In Brazil, after 1890, the federal government developed a policy aiming to encourage immigration from Europe, thus it reduced the price of ship tickets and gave them benefits, which favored the migration of Germans, Poles, Russians and Italians mainly to the region Southern Brazil.

In 1891, the first Italian immigrants who had embarked at Genoa in Italy arrived in Rio de Janeiro, passed by Desterro (Florianópolis's old name), Laguna with a train and the railway Dona Teresa Cristina they reached Pedras Grandes, from there on an ox cart to Urussanga, and finally to the long-awaited land yet unnamed. A beautiful land surrounded by a vast mountain range, plenty of natural resources and inhabited by Brazilian natives, the Bugres.

The immigrant group consisted of about 100 families from the Italian provinces of Belluno, Venice, Treviso, Ferrara and Bergamo. At first the settlement was known as Nova Belluno (New Belluno), which name was suggested by Marta Savaris, one of the immigrants, because of the similarity of the local relief of Belluno, Italy.

In the mid 20th century were discovered large reserves of coal in the soil of the region. The first miners began to settle it, among them Brazil's National Siderurgic Company (CSN), which explored the region between 1940 and 1980. The district was renamed itself Siderópolis to highlight the presence on the coal market, also to please the CSN's big investors, company which promised a bright future. In the 1940s, being a district Urussanga, from then began a movement for the emancipation of Siderópolis, which culminated on December 19, 1958, when then-governor of Santa Catarina, Heriberto Hülse, signed the law No. 380, breaking up the municipality of Siderópolis from Urussanga, thereby making the city politically emancipated and court of the county Urussanga.