Linhares

Linhares is a municipality in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, 135 kilometres north of the state capital Vitória. At 9,501.6 square kilometres it is the largest municipality by area in the state, and the 2022 census counted 166,786 residents. It is named for Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho, Count of Linhares, a minister in the Brazilian government in the early nineteenth century. Europeans founded the town on 22 August 1800, the Botocudo destroyed it in 1809, and it became a municipality in 1945 when it was detached from Colatina. The town sits on the Doce River among 69 lakes, including the Juparanã Lagoon, and the economy rests on commerce, agriculture, cattle and oil. The municipality holds large remnants of the Atlantic Forest.