Around the year 1000, the
Indigenous people who occupied the southern coast of what is now the state of Espírito Santo were driven inland by the invasion of
Tupi peoples from the
Amazon. In the 16th century, when the first European explorers arrived in the region, it was inhabited by one of these Tupi peoples: the Temiminós. In 1585, the
Jesuit priest
José de Anchieta founded a
Jesuit mission to
catechize the Indigenous people of the region: the village of Rio Verde, or the village of Santa Maria de Guaraparim. The village had a convent and a church dedicated to
Saint Anne. For its inauguration, Anchieta composed the
Auto Tupi. In 1677, the church of Our Lady of the Conception was built. In 1679, the village of Guaraparim was elevated to the status of a town. In 1835, the district of Guarapari was created. In 1860, the district received a visit from the
Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II. In 1878, it became a municipality. In 1891, it acquired city status. At the end of the 19th century, European settlers (mostly Italians who landed on the
Benevente River) settled in the municipality's interior, founding the towns of Todos os Santos and Rio Calçado, among others. These families' main economic activity was coffee, in addition to the cultivation they cultivated for their own subsistence. In 1948, its own town hall was established. In the mid-1960s and 1970s, Guarapari became nationally famous due to the purported medicinal properties of its
monazite sands. As a result, there was a growing tourist wave around the city. ==Transportation==