Santa Maria

A university city in the geographical centre of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, Santa Maria has a walkable centre with a dense café and restaurant scene and a concentration of historic churches. Founded officially in 1876, the city grew around a site first established in 1797 as a Portuguese-Spanish boundary commission camp, and the surrounding region contains significant palaeontological sites. The 2013 Kiss nightclub fire, in which 242 people died, remains part of the city's recent history.

• Population283,677
• Nearest water0.2 km
• Nearest mountain7.2 km