Like Argentina and Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul proudly celebrates its South American cowboy customs, along with a rich Italian and German immigrant heritage. Unlike Brazil's northern states, it boasts sweeping mountain vistas and cool canyons instead of sultry beaches and tropical Amazonian expanses.

History. The area of the city was first settled by Portuguese immigrants in the mid 18th century, but it would grow to the status of village only with the arrival of the first German immigrants in 1824. At that time, Novo Hamburgo was part of São Leopoldo, the cradle of German immigration in Brazil.