Belém

Belém, also Pará, city in northern Brazil, capital of Pará State, and chief port of the lower River Amazon near the equator on the Pará River, a tributary of the Amazon that links the waterway with the Atlantic Ocean. The port is accessible to ocean-going ships and there is a naval base. Belém is the primary trade centre of northern Brazil. The principal item of trade is rubber; other products include nuts (mainly Brazil nuts), black pepper, cacao, jute, and timber. In the city are sawmills, machine shops, shipyards, and factories producing bricks, tiles, and soap.

One of the most attractive cities in South America, Belém has numerous public squares and well-paved streets, many of which extend to the edge of the jungle. The cultural centre of northern Brazil, Belém is the site of the Federal University of Pará (1957) and the Goeldi Museum, with its world-famous Amazonian ethnological and zoological collections. Founded in 1615 by the Portuguese, Belém was the first centre of European colonization along the Amazon. It owes its commercial importance to the opening of the Amazon, as well as the Tapajós and Tocantins rivers, to foreign trade in the late 19th century. Since 1723 Belém has been the see of a Roman Catholic bishopric. Population 1,408,847 (2007 estimate).