Garanhuns

Garanhuns is a Brazilian municipality in the Agreste region of the state of Pernambuco, about 230 kilometres from the state capital, Recife. It covers 458.552 square kilometres and belongs to the Caruaru Intermediate Geographic Region, where it is the principal and most populous municipality of the Garanhuns Immediate Geographic Region. The territory was home to the indigenous Cariri people, and in the seventeenth century settlers and enslaved Africans fleeing Dutch rule established scattered villages in the moist-forest enclaves of the Caatinga; a land grant of about twenty leagues was awarded in 1658 and the Garcia Farm was set up in what is now the municipal seat. The arrival of a railway to Recife in the late nineteenth century brought growth in services and hotels. Standing on the Borborema Plateau at roughly 841 metres, Garanhuns is cooler than most of the region and is a hub for 32 municipalities, with healthcare, education, commerce and tourism as its strengths. Each July it hosts the Garanhuns Winter Festival, which draws visitors from many countries.