26/10/2017
Fortaleza and a Brazilian municipality, capital of the state of Ceará, located in the northeastern region of the country. It belongs to the metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and the microregion of Fortaleza. Distant 2 285 km from Brasilia, federal capital, a city developed on the banks of the Pajeú stream, and its toponymy is an allusion to the Schoonenborch Fort, which gave rise to the municipality, constructed by the Dutch during its second stay in the place, between 1649 and 1654. The motto of Fortaleza, present in its coat of arms, is a Latin word Fortitudine, which, in Portuguese, means "strength, courage, courage".
It is located on the Atlantic coast, at an average altitude of sixteen meters, with 34 km of beaches. Fortaleza has 313,140 km ² of area and 2 627 482 inhabitants estimated in 2017, in addition to the greater population density among the capitals of the country, with 8 390.76 hab / km ². It is a major city of Ceará in population and a farm in Brazil. The Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza is a sixth most populous of Brazil and the first of the North and Northeast, with 4 051 744 inhabitants in 2017. It is a northeastern city with a greater area of regional influence and has a third largest urban network of Brazil in population, behind only São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Fortaleza was in 2014 the twelfth richest city in the country in GDP and the richest in the Northeast, with 56 billion reais. It also has a third richer metropolitan region of the North and Northeast. It is important the industrial and commercial center of Brazil, with the greatest municipal purchasing power of the nation. In tourism, a city as the second most wanted destination of Brazil and fourth Brazilian city that more tourists according to the Ministry of Tourism. It is the headquarters of Banco do Nordeste, Transnordestina Logística and DNOCS. The BR-116, a highway of the most important country, begins in Fortaleza. The municipality is part of the Common Market of Cities of Mercosur.
Named after the poet Paula Ney, a Ceará metropolis is the birthplace of Brazilians of great renown as the president of the Republic Castelo Branco and Dom Hélder Câmara, as well as Capistrano de Abreu, Gustavo Barroso, Casimiro Montenegro Filho, José de Alencar, Karim Aïnouz, Maurício Peixoto and Rachel de Queiroz. It is a Brazilian capital closer to Europe, 5 608 km from Lisbon, in Portugal.