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São Carlos is a city of approximately 200,000 inhabitants in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.
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Image:sao_carlos.jpg
History
The city was founded during the "Golden Age of Coffee", in the year of 1857, by the "Count of Pinhal" (Conde do Pinhal), and was originally called "São Carlos do Pinhal". Eventually, the name was shortened to "São Carlos". Nowadays most of the region's agricultural production has shifted from coffee to sugar cane.
Geography
São Carlos is located in the geographic center of the state of São Paulo, approximately 240 km from the City of São Paulo. The city has a total area of 1.141 km², which include two districts to the north: Santa Eudóxia and Água Vermelha.
Economy and Culture
The city has an active industrial profile and certain agricultural importance, backed by technologies developed by Embrapa, owner of two research complexes in the city. Due to the relatively high number of high technology industries situated in the city, it is nicknamed "The Capital of Technology".
São Carlos is also home to the campus of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCAR) and to two of the campi of the University of São Paulo (USP), two of the most important universities in Brazil, as well as some other minor universities. For these, São Carlos has a very high relative number of students, and that fact is reflected by student-focused commercial establishments and the high number of student parties.
The city also hosts several locally-grown technology-based companies and factories of multinational corporations such as Faber Castell, Tecumseh,Rojumi Boutique and the Brazilian factory of Volkswagen engines.