Macapa

Macapá is a corruption of the Tupi word macapaba, or "place of many bacabas", the fruit of the local palm tree. The Spaniard Francisco de Orellana claimed the region in 1544 and called it Nueva Andalucía (New Andalusia). The modern town began as the base of a Portuguese military detachment, stationed there in 1738. On February 4, 1758, Sebastião Veiga Cabral, the illegitimate child of the military governor of Trás-os-Montes, Sebastião Veiga Cabral, founded the town of São José de Macapá, under the authority of the governor of Pará, Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado. The fortress of São Joselito de Macapá was first laid out in 1764, but took 18 years to complete, due to illness among the Indian workers, and numerous escapes made by black slaves. …

The municipality contains the 111-hectare (270-acre) Parazinho Biological Reserve, created in 1985 to protect an island in the Amazon River. It contains the 21,676-hectare (53,560-acre) Rio Curiaú Environmental Protection Area, created in 1992 to protect an area near the urban center from city sprawl, and to protect the culture of the traditional inhabitants. It contains the 137-hectare (340-acre) Fazendinha Environmental Protection Area, created in 2004. The Macapá region includes large tracts of tropical rainforest and experiences relatively high rainfall. Macapá features a tropical monsoon climate (Am) under the Köppen climate classification, with a lengthy wet season from December through July, and a relatively short dry season that covers the remaining four months. …

Macapá is an economic center of northern Brazil and serves as a commercial hub of the state of Amapá. Gold, iron, lumber, manganese, oil, timber, and tin ore from the interior of the state pass through Amapá on to Port of Santana in the neighboring municipality of Santana. It is the fifth wealthiest city in northern Brazil, with a GDP of R$2,826,458,000 (2005). The city has a notably high rate of economic growth and a per capita income of R$7,950 (2005).

The fortress of St. Joseph is a Vauban-style star fort built between 1764 and 1782 to replace two previous fortifications located in the city. It was built to safeguard the northern extremity of Brazil and to control the Amazon Delta. It is one of the main sights of the city of Macapa. The Marco Zero monument was built to mark the position of the equator in the city and to show the passage of the sun. At the spring and the autumn equinox the sun rises and sets on the line of the equator and shines on the monument along the Avenue Equatorial, which runs for a mile due east of it. The Estádio Milton Corrêa, usually known as the Zerão ("Big Zero", from its position with the midfield line exactly on the equator), is a multi-purpose stadium located in central Macapá on the R. Ilvaldo Alves Veras east of the university (UNIFAP). …

Macapá has a few roads to other cities in Brazil but is mainly connected to the rest of the country by air and sea. Macapá is located 345 kilometres (214 mi) from Belém, but the cities are separated by the large inland island of Marajó and have no direct highway connections; the city is accessible only by boat or airplane. Macapá is connected to French Guiana by the Brazilian federal highway BR-156, which runs north of the city through the Amazonian jungle. The city is connected with the rest of the North Region via the following highways: the AP-010, linking Macapá to Santana to the southwest; the AP-030, linking to the city of Mazagão; the BR-156, linking the south of Amapá and Laranjal do Jari to the northern town of Oiapoque. The Oyapoque River Bridge has been open to traffic since March 20, 2017, linking Brazil and French Guiana by road for the first time. …