Chesapeake's Sister City Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Joinville is the biggest city of Santa Catarina, with more than 500 thousand inhabitants. Today it is one of the most visited cities in South Brazil. The old industrial vocation also turned Joinville into the richest city of the state, consolidating a new characteristic Latin – American reference as a center for tourism and events. It is the headquarters of international enterprises but it is still charming with its simplicity. Flowers and gardens decorate houses, buildings, parks, avenues and factories.

Besides its official name the city of Joinville has some other titles: The City of Flowers, The City of Bicycles, The City of Princes, and The Capital of the Dance.

With its French name, a cultural charm of German traditions, Joinville is also seaside, as it is located at the edges of Cachoeira River and Babitonga Bay.  The weather is subtropical in most of the area and the seasons are all very well defined. In summer, the temperature easily goes up to 40º C, causing tropical rains almost every afternoon.

Joinville offers a lot of options for entertainment, culture, shopping and nightlife. There are modern shopping centers, commercial galleries, movie theaters, bars, and discos to please all tastes and ages. The art work of the local artists, such as Juarez Machado, Fritz Alt and Mario Avancini can be seen in museums and galleries. The visitors can also enjoy the bucolic scenery of the rural area and learn about the immigrant descendents through the constructions and on daily details shown on pleasant walks. For those who want to practice sports, the city has golf fields, horseracing and kart facilities.

History

Joinville is a modern city that has a great consideration with its history. The story starts after the wedding that joined the imperial Brazilian Family and the French Royal Family. In 1843, François Ferdinand Philip, Prince of Joinville, received these lands as part of Princess Francisca Carolina´s marriage.  The first immigrants, 118 people from Germany and Switzerland, arrived in March 1851. They crossed the ocean, with its rough water, going west. They were all riveted by the wild and exuberant nature of the mainland and islands.

The Flower Festival

For over 65 years the Flower Festival has been held in November. It is one of the most traditional events of South Brazil. Thousands of people coming from different states and countries visit the exhibition organized at Edmundo Doubrawa Expocentro. The exhibition is organized by AJAO, an association that joins orchid lovers and PROMOTUR – Tourism Foundation of Joinville.  Among so many flowers, the orchids deserve a special reference in the city and in the exhibition.

The City of Dance

Joinville is nowadays an artistic reference center in the country. The dance festival of the city has been consolidated as the biggest open contest among students, amateur and professional ballet dancers of Latin America. At present, it is a reference for many events of the same kind in the country.  For these reasons, the Bolshoi Theater School opened its only school out of Moscow, in March 2000. It maintains the same teaching approach of the Russian school and brings to the city the charm of an international school that focuses on art.