Palmas

Palmas is Brazil's youngest state capital. The state of Tocantins was created under the 1988 constitution from the northern part of Goiás, and a commission to build its new capital, named Novacap, was set up in March 1989. On 20 May 1989 the foundation stone was laid in a ceremony attended by some 10,000 people on the site of today's Sunflower Square, on former farmland near the Tocantins River. In 1990 Palmas replaced the temporary capital, Miracema do Tocantins, and the Araguaia Palace, seat of the state government, was inaugurated in March 1991.

The city was laid out with its own master plan, its zoning inspired by Brasília, with a symmetrical park at its centre and a long central avenue running north to south. Builders preserved many of the original cerrado trees in green strips along the avenues, so many of the street trees are older than the city itself.

Growth was rapid. Palmas had about 24,000 people in 1991 and over 130,000 by 2000, and the population more than doubled again in the following years as migrants arrived from across Brazil. In 2002 the Lajeado hydroelectric dam was completed on the Tocantins River, creating a large reservoir beside the city that gave it beaches, and an 8 km bridge across it linked Palmas with the BR-153 highway.

As a new city, Palmas has drawn its culture from the migrants who came from across Brazil to build it and from the land around it. The Indigenous peoples of Tocantins are honoured in the Sunflower Square, where the Krahô Square pays tribute to them, and the city even has a name in the Akwẽ-Xerente language.

The square is the city's stage and its history book. The Cruzeiro, the first monument erected in Palmas, the Súplica dos Pioneiros monument to the pioneers, a memorial by Oscar Niemeyer to the Prestes Column, which marched through the region in the 1920s, and a monument to the Bible all stand within it, alongside the Cascata, a waterfall representing the rivers of the state.

Religion is an important part of life: about half the population is Catholic and over a third evangelical. Crafts made from capim dourado, the golden grass of the Jalapão, are a main source of income for communities there, sold in the city and made in villages such as Taquaruçu, whose artisans also work with babaçu and local seeds.

Palmas had an estimated 306,000 inhabitants in 2020, according to IBGE, and its metropolitan area about 470,000. The planned centre, the Plano Diretor, holds the government buildings and most offices, while the southern region of Taquaralto and the Aurenys forms the rest of the urban area; the municipality also includes the rural districts of Taquaruçu and Buritirana.

The state government, public services and commerce dominate the economy, and the Federal University of Tocantins draws students from across the state. The surrounding region lives on soya, cattle and the Tocantins and Araguaia rivers. Despite its growth, the city's economy remains small: in 2013 its GDP was the lowest of any Brazilian state capital.

The rhythm of life follows the heat. Avenues are wide and distances long, so most people drive, and the lake beaches fill at weekends, especially in the dry season. Built for far more people than it yet has, the city still has a spacious feel, and its uncrowded airport was planned for a population of a million.

The cooking of Palmas mixes the traditions of the people who settled it with the produce of the cerrado and the rivers. Rice and beans with grilled meat are the everyday base, and per-kilo restaurants, where diners pay by the weight of their plate, are the usual lunch.

River fish is the regional speciality. Along the Tocantins and the Araguaia, fish is grilled on the dry-season beaches, and the kiosks and restaurants by the lake serve it fried or grilled with rice, beans and manioc flour. Beef is also common, as cattle are one of the mainstays of the state's economy.

The cerrado provides distinctive fruits, such as buriti, the fruit of a tall palm, which is made into juice, jam, ice cream and other sweets. The migrants who built the city brought the dishes of their home states with them, so menus mix the cooking of many parts of Brazil.