Embu das Artes

About Embu das Artes

Embu das Artes, previously and commonly known simply as Embu, is a Brazilian municipality in the State of São Paulo. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The population is 259,788 (2025 est.) in an area of 70.40 km2.

Its history brought it an unexpected specialization as a city for artists. This has paid tourism dividends to the city.

The history of Embu began in 1554, with the arrival of a group of Jesuits of the aldeamento or settlement of Bohi, later M'Boy, halfway between the sea and the São Paulo hinterlands. As the Jesuit missions in the interior of Brazil, the primary objective was to convert the native population to Roman Catholicism, in an attempt to use them as farm workers in the region.

In 1607 the lands of the village passed to the hands of Fernão Dias (uncle of the bandeirante Fernão Dias, the emerald hunter), In 1690, the priest Belchior de Pontes initiated the construction of the Igreja do Rosário (the Church of the Rosary), when it transferred at the same time to the nucleus of the original village. In 1760, by order of the Portuguese Crown, the Jesuits were expelled from Brazil because they interfered in colonist affairs, such as protecting...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.