Why Barcelos
Barcelos, historically referred to as Barcellos or Mariuá, is an expansive municipality situated within the state of Amazonas in northern Brazil. Spanning an area of 122,476 square kilometers (47,288 square miles), it ranks as the second-largest municipal jurisdiction in the country behind Altamira. Its vast territory is comparable in size to New York State and slightly surpasses the area of North Korea, supporting a population recorded at 27,638 in 2020.
Originally established as Mariuá, a village of the Manaus Indigenous people, the settlement was developed by Carmelite Friar Matias São Boaventuras in 1728 near the mouth of the Javari River. In 1755, Governor General Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado selected the location as the capital for the newly created captaincy of São José do Rio Negro. It held this administrative capital status from 1755 to 1791, and again from 1799 until 1808.
The region's geography is defined by the surrounding Amazon Basin, featuring an equatorial or tropical rainforest climate (Köppen classification Af). The vast municipality encompasses several protected natural territories, including portions of the Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve and the Amazonas National Forest. It also houses the 833,352-hectare (2,059,260-acre) Rio Unini Extractive Reserve, an area established in 2006.
Ecotourism and the trade of ornamental fish are central to local identity and economic activity. As Brazil's top exporter of ornamental fish, the area sends over 19 million specimens to markets in Asia, Europe, and the United States annually. Since 1994, Barcelos has hosted a yearly festival dedicated to these fish, providing a major financial driver for the municipality. Additionally, Project Piaba utilizes the town as the operational base for its regular scientific field research into the Rio Negro basin.
Barcelos is accessible by air via Barcelos Airport, which provides scheduled flight connections to the state capital of Manaus.
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