Nova Serrana, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil

🇧🇷 Nova Serrana is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in the Southeast region of Brazil.

The city is also known as the National Capital of Sports Footwear

History Cercado was a district created by Provincial Law, subordinated to the municipality of Pitangui.

Raised to the category of municipality in 1953, with the name of Nova Serrana, the toponym originated from the surname given to the municipality of Pitangui (Velha Serrana) of which it was a district.

The region of Cercado was full of Cataguases Indians, as pointed out by the ceramic finds (igaçabas, pots and vases) among other artifacts. The nation of the Cataguases occupied from the southern and western region of Minas Gerais and were among those who most terrified the first inhabitants.

Later, in the mid-eighteenth century, the Cercado region was taken by fugitive slaves (quilombolas).

Cercado was a point of inn for travelers, who left Pitangui to São Paulo, traveling a secret road in gold smuggling. As in the place there was a fence for the guarding of travelers' animals, the village became known as Cercado.

The progress of the camp was not encouraged by gold mining, but by the cultivation of cotton, cattle breeding, production and supply of leather.

Ranches played an important role on the roadside and were important in the economy of the regions transited by muleteers. It was in these places that the troops stocked up to continue their journey.

Geography Between valleys and slopes (flat: 20%, wavy: 40% and mountainous: 40%), Nova Serrana is part of the Brazilian region known as cerrado. It has a hot and dry climate for most of the year. In the cold season, the weather also undergoes significant changes. Its average temperature is Co 22.

It has an area of 283.101 km². Average annual temperature: 25.8 °C Average annual rainfall index: 1272 mm Biome: Cerrado Relief (topography): Plane: 20%, wavy: 40% and mountainous: 40%

Its main waterways are the Pará River and the Ribeirão da Fartura.

Its maximum altitude is on the hill with 910 meters and the minimum is 699 meters.

Tourist Industry Tourism in Nova Serrana is one of the areas that should be invested over the years, knowing that this area generates a lot of employment and income. Permanent preservation areas should be created in the city, such as parks or public gardens.

Tourist Spots Serra da Capelinha, Igreja da Matriz, Praça da Matriz, Igreja do Rosário, Praça Jardins do Lago.

Main events Birthday of the city, feast of the patron saint São Sebastião, Footwear and Fashion Fair - Pawn's Party, Migrant's Party, Febrac - Fair of Machines and Components for Footwear, Reign Party, Intercollegiate Friendship Games.

Handicraft Embroidery, weaving aimed at making shoes. The first shoes produced in Nova Serrana were handmade. Only in 1948 was the first boot factory established, registered by Geny José Ferreira.

Economy The municipality, embedded in the midwest region of the state, stands out for its footwear production: in 2004, it was responsible for the production of 55% of sports shoes in Brazil, establishing itself as the third footwear pole in the country, behind Franca (SP) and Rio Grande do Sul.

It is important to emphasize that, for some time now, the city has been standing out more for research in new technologies, quality and design of its shoes than for copies and fakes. It cannot be denied that there are still counterfeit shoes being manufactured in factories that work irregularly, but we have to consider that these are a few isolated manufacturers.

The local production system of Nova Serrana orbits exclusively around the manufacture of sports shoes with popular prices. According to a study by Professor Wilson Suzigan, from Unicamp, in 1972 there were 48 leather footwear factories in the city. The number jumped to 400 in 1985, a time when factories began to work with synthetic materials, whose advantages are the lower price and the simpler transformation process in relation to leather. In 2004, the city had 854 companies, which generated approximately 21,000 direct jobs and produced 77 million pairs per year.

Every year there are two fairs of great importance in the city, FEBRAC and FENOVA

Education Today the city has six state schools, fourteen municipal schools, six private schools, one of which is special education, a technical school and two colleges serving higher education in business administration and accounting courses. The city also has three schools with pre-vestibular education. Due to the large flow of people and the number of jobs available, education receives a negative influence, thus generating a rate of 17% of school dropout and 710% of illiteracy.

In non-fornal education it has the Scout Movement, represented in the city by the 120th Bravos da Serra Scout Group, working with young people aged between 6.5 and 21 years, founded in 2012, its meetings are held on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., in Praça da Bíblia and Praça Chefe Rose. It has an Administrative Headquarters located at Rua Rui Barbosa, 180, Marisa neighborhood.