Bento Gonçalves

Kaingang people moved through the forests along the Rio das Antas before European settlement, and were driven out progressively by hired raiders in the late 19th century. Drovers passing a small wooden cross on the trail knew the spot as Cruzinha. In 1875 the imperial government created four colonies for Italian immigrants in the Serra Gaúcha, and the one here, named Dona Isabel after the princess, received its first 25 families that year, mostly from Trento; over the following decades the settlers came mainly from Veneto, Trentino and Lombardy.

The colonists cleared steep, forested plots, built chapels around which communities formed, and turned to grapes and wine. In 1890 the colony separated from Montenegro and was renamed after Bento Gonçalves da Silva, leader of the Farroupilha Revolution. The railway reached the city in 1919, linking it to Porto Alegre, and new arrivals from Poland, Germany, Sweden, France and Spain joined the Italian majority. Ernesto Geisel, president of Brazil from 1974 to 1979, was born here in 1907.

In 1967 the city held the first National Wine Festival, the Fenavinho, and wine, furniture and metalworking grew into major industries. Regular passenger trains ended in the 1970s, and from 1993 the line to Garibaldi and Carlos Barbosa was revived for steam-train tourism. The Vale dos Vinhedos gained Brazil's first wine designation of origin in 2012, and in 2016 the city made Talian a co-official language.

Bento Gonçalves is one of the centres of Italian immigration in Brazil, and that heritage is cultivated deliberately. Talian, the dialect descended from the Venetian and other northern Italian speech of the settlers, is still spoken, and since 2016 has been co-official with Portuguese. Italian choirs and tarantella are part of local celebrations and of the entertainment on the steam train.

Catholic faith shaped the colony: chapels were the first community buildings in each settlement line, and the city's patron, Saint Anthony of Padua, is honoured with a municipal holiday on 13 June. The Caminhos de Pedra preserves the stone and timber farmhouses of the first generations and was among the first rural tourism routes in Brazil; it was declared part of the state's historic and cultural heritage in 2009.

Wine is a cultural as well as an economic identity. The Fenavinho, the harvest season and the presence of a federal wine research and education centre make winemaking a matter of civic pride, and the giant wine-barrel gateway at the city entrance announces it. Gaúcho traditions — chimarrão, churrasco and the state's own accent — sit comfortably alongside the Italian ones.

About 123,000 people lived in the municipality at the 2022 census. Bento Gonçalves is among the ten largest economies in Rio Grande do Sul, the country's largest wine producer and home to its second-largest furniture industry, with metal, mechanical, plastics and chemical factories as well. Its human development index has long been among the highest in the state.

The city's exhibition park, built for the Fenavinho, hosts trade fairs for furniture, furniture machinery and wine machinery that bring business visitors throughout the year, alongside well over a million tourists. Vineyards surround the city, and the harvest, which begins in early January, brings a rush of work for growers and wineries.

Daily life follows a small-city rhythm: residents live in the hilltop centre and the neighbourhoods spreading down the slopes, and the rural districts keep their chapels and community halls. Mornings start early in the factories, lunch is the main meal, and chimarrão is passed around at home and at work. Traffic, water supply and the pressure of tourism on the countryside are local concerns.

The food of Bento Gonçalves is the cooking of the Italian settlers adapted to Brazilian ingredients. The galeto is the classic meal: spring chicken roasted on the grill, served in rounds with soup, polenta, pasta, salad and bread until the diners stop. Polenta often appears fried.

Wine is the city's product. Bento Gonçalves is Brazil's largest producer of grapes, wine and grape products, from table wines of American and hybrid grapes to wines of European varieties and well-regarded sparkling wines. The Vale dos Vinhedos was the first Brazilian region to receive a protected designation of origin, and its wineries welcome visitors for tastings. The city is home to Vinícola Aurora, Brazil's largest wine cooperative, and Casa Valduga is the largest winery in the valley. Grape juice, the non-alcoholic counterpart, is equally local and widely sold.

Gaúcho cooking is everywhere too: churrascarias serve beef, sausage and chicken roasted over embers, and the restaurants, museums and small wineries in the old farmhouses of the Caminhos de Pedra welcome visitors.