Londrina

Londrina
—  Municipality  —
The Municipality of Londrina
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): Red feet's city
Location in Paraná
Londrina Location in Brazil.
Coordinates: 23°18′36″S 51°09′46″W
Country	Brazil
State	Paraná
Mesoregion	Norte Central Paranaense
Microregion	Londrina
Founded	December 10, 1934
Government
• Mayor	Homero Barbosa Neto (PDT)
Area
• Total	1,650.809 km2 (637 sq mi)
Elevation	610 m (2,000 ft)
Population (2010)
• Total	506,645
• Density	310/km2 (800/sq mi)
Demonym	Londrinenses
Time zone	UTC-3 (UTC-3)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-2 (UTC-2)
Postal Code	86000-000
Area code(s)	+55 43
Website	Official website

Londrina (Portuguese pronunciation: [lõˈdɾĩnɐ], Londoner) is a city located in the northern region of the state of Paraná, Brazil, and is 369 km away from the capital, Curitiba. Londrina was originally founded by British settlers. The city exerts great influence on Paraná and Brazil's south region. Londrina has approximately 500,000 inhabitants, being the second largest city in Paraná and the third largest city in the Southern Region of Brazil.

The city has a population of 506,645 (IBGE Census 2010) and 1,087,815 in its metropolitan area. It is a regional centre and is made up of commerce, services, agro-industries, and universities, including the State University of Londrina, or UEL.

Demography

Londrina was named after the British entrepreneurs who launched railroad stations in the region to ease the transportation of coffee grains from northern Paraná and southern São Paulo states to the port of Santos. The Londrina name pays homage to the English capital London (Londres in Portuguese), since an English cotton company made the original investment to settle in this area. The city's population consists of descendants of those settlers, Brazilians from other cities or states, Portuguese, English, Japanese, Italian, German, Polish, African, Spanish, Native, Arabian and Bulgarian Brazilians.

Color/Race	Percentage
White	74.2%
Pardo (Brown/Mixed race)	18.3%
Asian	3.6%
Black	3.4%
Indian (Native American)	0.3%

Fonte: Censo 2000

Climate

Located in the Southern Brazil, Londrina is a somewhat humid city in the subtropical zone.

Economy

Reproduction in scale 2:3 of the first chapel of the city of Londrina. Present in UEL.

Agriculture continues to be Londrina's major economic activity, although its importance has diminished in recent years. Agricultural activity was diversified beyond coffee, and today corn, wheat, cotton, horticulture, beans, peanuts, rice, sugar cane, soy bean, and fruit plantations thrive due to the rich Northern Paraná/South Western São Paulo State "terra roxa" crimson soil. Although the city has increased its industrial park by adding weaving, textiles and agricultural factories, Londrina's main wealth continues to be agricultural production. Today, Londrina is also known for its commerce and service sectors. Moreover, real estate is another growing sector that has generated jobs and boosted even more the size of this city in Paraná.

It possesses one of the largest universities in the country, the State University of Londrina, as well as several private colleges.

The city is served by Gov. José Richa Airport.

Soil

The fertile land of the region, "terra roxa" (purple soil), has this name due to a corruption and attempt to translate into Portuguese the term "terra rossa" (red soil, in Italian), which Italian immigrants used to call it. The inhabitants of Northern Paraná state are often called "pé vermelho" (red foot) because of their dust bowl-like region. The fertility of the soil is said to have originated in the biggest volcanic lava spill of the planet, known as The Spill of Trapp, that to a large extent occurred in the Center-South region of Brazil. During its golden era, together with the west bank of the Paraná River, Londrina helped produce 60% of the coffee of the world.

Londrina in the afternoon.

Education

Academical Restaurant of State University of Londrina (UEL).

Portuguese is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. But English and Spanish are part of the official high school curriculum.

Colleges and universities

• Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL)
• Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR)
• Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUC-PR)
• Universidade Norte do Paraná (UNOPAR)
• Centro Universitário Filadéfia (UniFil)
• Faculdade Pitágoras
• and many others.

Metropolitan region of Londrina

Instituted by State Complementary Law 81 on 17 June 1998, the Metropolitan Region of Londrina includes the cities of Londrina, Cambé, Ibiporã, Sertanópolis, Bela Vista do Paraíso, Jataizinho, Rolândia, and Tamarana, totaling 750 thousand inhabitants.

Religion

The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Londrina.

Sports

The city's football clubs include Londrina Esporte Clube, founded in 1956, and the Associação Portuguesa Londrinense founded in 1950. They play at Café stadium, a 45,000 spectator capacity stadium.

Inesul/Londrina, owned by INESUL - Instituto de Ensino Superior de Londrina, an higher education institution, is a city's major basketball club and competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro de Basquete.

People

• Everson Maciel, footballer
• Flavia de Oliveira, model
• Giovane Élber, footballer
• Rafinha, footballer
• Jadson, footballer
• Naldo, footballer
• Michelle Alves, model
• Victor Lazzarini, composer
• Gilberto Godoy (Giba), volleyball player
• Rogério Romero, swimmer

Twin towns

• Modena, Italy

External links

• Official website (Portuguese)
• Official homepage (English)