Santarém

Machine translation of the Portuguese Wikipedia article (November 2026 version).

Santarém is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Pará, seat of the Santarém Geographic Region and the third most populous municipality in the state, behind only the state capital (Belém) and Ananindeua. It is the main urban, financial, commercial and cultural center of western Pará.

It is also the seat of the Santarém Metropolitan Region, the second largest urban agglomeration in Pará. It belongs to the Baixo Amazonas mesoregion and to the microregion of the same name. It sits at the confluence of the Tapajós and Amazon rivers. Located about 800 km from the Amazon's major cities (Manaus and Belém), it is poetically known as the “Pearl of the Tapajós”.

In 2025, its population was estimated by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) at 360,871 inhabitants, making it the third most populous municipality in Pará, the eighth most populous in the North Region and the 82nd most populous municipality in Brazil. It covers an area of 17,898.389 km², of which 97 km² are within the urban perimeter.

Founded on June 22, 1661, it is one of the oldest cities in the Amazon region. In 1758 it was elevated to the status of vila, and almost a century later, as a result of its remarkable development, it was elevated to city status on October 24, 1848. It is included in Brazil's plan of historic cities, being one of the oldest and most culturally significant cities in Pará.

Text: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Read the full article on Wikipedia (in Portuguese)