in
Lagoa dos Patos, in a municipal fair named
Festa do Mar. The history of Rio Grande is as old as the history of the whole region. It was explored by Portuguese sailors led by
Martim Afonso de Sousa who sought fortified places along the southern Brazilian coast for a defense against the French
corsairs. He discovered the tributary which indirectly connects the
Lagoa dos Patos and
Lagoa Mirim to the
Atlantic Ocean and called the place
Rio Grande de São Pedro (). In 1669, the Portuguese established a colony further down the South American coastline along the
Río de la Plata, which they called
Colônia do Sacramento. With the first permanent Portuguese settlement in the region, livestock was introduced and began to spread far and wide over the territory. With the new settlers, the Portuguese decided to make a church-sanctioned settlement and, in 1736, created the Freguesia de São Pedro which covered what is today all of
Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul. The city of Rio Grande was founded in 1737 by Brigadier General
José da Silva Pais and his men to defend Portugal's territory. The Jesus Maria e José Fort was constructed, which was built on the site of the future city. The fort was transformed into a town when colonists from the
Azores and
Madeira arrived in the 1750s. In 1751, the growing colony became the Village of Rio Grande de São Pedro. In 1760, Rio Grande de São Pedro, which was formerly governed from
Santa Catarina became its own
captaincy, a type of administrative division. In 1763 the village was occupied by the Spanish. After constant disputes, Portugal reconquered the village in 1776, thanks to the actions of General Rafael Pinto Bandeira. However, when the fortress was taken by Spanish troops, many families fled to
Viamão and established around its port the city of
Porto Alegre. During the
Ragamuffin War, Rio Grande became a city and the province's capital all at once. In 1835, revolutionary General
Bento Gonçalves da Silva forced
Antônio Rodrigues Fernandes Braga, the provincial president, to flee from
Porto Alegre to Rio Grande, a journey of about 200 km. The city remained the province's seat of government until the revolution's end in 1845. ==Geography==