Florianópolis

Carijó people, a Tupi group, lived on the island long before Europeans arrived, leaving shell mounds, sambaquis, up to 4,000 years old; they called it Meiembipe, "mountain along the channel". The Portuguese landed around 1514 and named it Ilha dos Patos, the island of ducks, before it became Santa Catarina in 1526, a supply stop for ships bound for the Río de la Plata. Permanent settlement began in 1673, when the bandeirante Francisco Dias Velho arrived with his farming company, and in 1678 a chapel was built to Nossa Senhora do Desterro, which gave the town its first name.

Its position halfway between Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires made it strategic. In 1739 Desterro became capital of a new captaincy, and a ring of fortresses was built around the bay. Between 1747 and 1756 about 6,000 settlers arrived from the Azores and Madeira, founding villages such as Santo Antônio de Lisboa and Ribeirão da Ilha and bringing farming, linen and cotton weaving, and fishing; the island was also an important whaling centre. In 1823 Desterro became capital of the province of Santa Catarina.

After the fall of the monarchy, the Federalist Revolt spread here from Rio Grande do Sul, and Desterro briefly became the rebels' capital. President Floriano Peixoto crushed the rising, many of its supporters were shot at the Anhatomirim fortress, and in the 1890s the city was renamed Florianópolis, "Floriano's city". The Hercílio Luz Bridge reached the island in 1926. From the late 20th century the federal university, tourism and a growing technology industry turned the quiet capital into one of Brazil's most desirable cities.

Azorean heritage is the root of island culture. The Florianopolitan dialect, brought by the Azorean settlers, is still heard in the old villages, and long-established islanders are proudly known as manezinhos. Women in Lagoa da Conceição and Ribeirão da Ilha still make bobbin lace, renda de bilro, and traditions such as the Festa do Divino, the Holy Spirit festival held since colonial times, survive alongside the newcomers' culture. The city's Symbolist poet Cruz e Sousa is commemorated in the restored governor's palace that bears his name.

Florianópolis is also one of the centres of Brazilian surfing. Surfers from around the world discovered Joaquina in the 1970s, and Praia Mole has hosted rounds of the world surf tour. The island is known for its outdoor lifestyle — water sports on the lagoon, sandboarding on the dunes, trails over the hills — and for an open, relaxed atmosphere, with a well-known LGBTQ scene in summer.

Football divides the city between Avaí, in blue and white, and Figueirense, in black and white, whose home is in the mainland district of Estreito. Rowing clubs between the bridges keep an older sporting tradition alive.

About 537,000 people lived in Florianópolis at the 2022 census, the second-largest city in Santa Catarina after Joinville, and the metropolitan area has an estimated 1.1 million. Most residents live on the mainland and in the centre and north of the island; the southern half is much less built up. The city scores among the highest in Brazil on the human development index.

Commerce and services make up almost the whole economy. Tourism is a staple, and information technology has become one of the biggest earners: companies grew out of an incubator at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, and local officials have long promoted the island as a Brazilian Silicon Valley with beaches. The university and the state government are major employers, and fishing and oyster farming continue in the old villages.

The city's popularity has brought pressure. Brazilians from other states and foreigners have moved to the island, and summer traffic jams on its few roads are notorious. Environmental limits on building, rising sea levels and coastal erosion are live issues, and mangroves are being replanted around the city to protect the shore.

Seafood defines the island's table. Santa Catarina farms oysters and mussels, and Ribeirão da Ilha is the country's biggest oyster-producing district: oysters are the speciality of restaurants along the bay at Ribeirão and Santo Antônio de Lisboa. Shrimp caught in the lagoon at night is sold to the restaurants of Barra da Lagoa, and fish dishes range from simple fried fillets to stews served with rice and pirão, a porridge-like dish of manioc in fish stock.

In winter the mullet, tainha, runs along the coast, and fishermen on the beaches of the north haul it in with nets, a tradition from Azorean times. Grilled tainha, tainha grelhada, is a favourite of the season.

The Mercado Público in the centre has been a hub of food stalls and bars since the 1890s, and Lagoa da Conceição has the island's widest choice of restaurants and organic markets. As in the rest of southern Brazil, churrasco and buffet lunches are everyday food, and the Fenaostra oyster festival celebrates the local harvest.