Belém

Be·lém

B0168300 (bə-lĕm′, -lāN′) Formerly Pa·rá (pə-rä′) A city of northern Brazil in the Amazon delta. It is the chief port and commercial center of the vast Amazon River basin.

Belém

(Portuguese bəˈlẽi) n (Placename) a port in N Brazil, the capital of Pará state, on the Pará River: major trading centre for the Amazon basin. Pop: 2 097 000 (2005 est)

Be•lém

(bəˈlɛm)

n. the capital of Pará state, in N Brazil on the Pará River. 755,984.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.Belem - port city in northern Brazil in the Amazon delta; main port and commercial center for the Amazon River basinFeliz Lusitania, Santa Maria de Belem, St. Mary of Bethlehem, ParaBrasil, Brazil, Federative Republic of Brazil - the largest Latin American country and the largest Portuguese speaking country in the world; located in the central and northeastern part of South America; world's leading coffee exporter

Belém

(bəlāN`) or

Pará

(pərä`), city (1996 pop. 1,142,258), capital of Pará state, N Brazil, on the Pará River. Belém, the chief port of the vast Amazon River basin, handles the Amazonian produce (chiefly Brazil nuts, aluminum, cassava, and pepper) and has processing plants. North Brazil's largest airport and a coastal railroad enhance the trade of Belém, which is also connected with Brasília by a railroad and highway.

Belém [Port.,=Bethlehem] was founded by the Portuguese in 1616 as Santa Maria de Belém do Grão Pará and was a military post for the defense of N Brazil against French, English, and Dutch pirates. It reached a peak of feverish prosperity during the wild-rubber boom in the late 19th and early 20th cent., then suffered a depression that was alleviated by diversification and planned development in the 1930s. Prosperity increased also after World War II with the improvement of communications within the Amazon region.

The city is known for its Goeldi museum, with ethnological and zoological collections of the Amazon basin. It also has an open-air market, a botanical garden brilliant with exotic flowers, a modern leprosarium, and the Federal Univ. of Pará. The government palace and the cathedral were built in the 18th cent.; Santo Alexandre, Belém's oldest church, was completed in 1616.