Founded on golden crib and under the mark of predestination, on January 6, 1880, Criciúma was colonized by Italian, German, Polish, African and Azorean people, who, following that order, settled down in the region. In a little while, the plantations were growing and the first sugar mills appeared. At that time, when people made a living and regions developed through the work of their hands, the marks that were to become the sign and the symbol of that people were being built. Those signs perpetuated in the audacity and braveness of facing and overcoming challenges.

And they found their goldin the form of black coal, which was found almost accidentally in the beginning of the last century. Men and nature united, coal and tenacity, leadership and braveness, modeling the final forms of a promising future. From then on, with the establishment of extracting industries, a new horizon was opened for the city, which entered the industrial age. The beginning of the Second Word War and the consequent growing need for energy, multiplied the mining activities, converting the city, as from the 40’s, into the place to which everyone in the South of Santa Catarina would go searching for better and more rewarding jobs and salaries. Criciúma started to rely on that resource as the basis of its economy and the polarization of the activities of all cities in the Coal Region. The progressive point of view, the braveness and the vanguard spirit of its business leaders’ opened a new era in the trajectory of the region’s history. However, accompanying progress close by, it would not remain aside, but followed each of its steps, developing into industrial diversification.

The region of Criciúma is the third largest producer of jeans fabric in the Country and the largest clothes-making pole in the state of Santa Catarina. One example is the retail sale that attracts tourists from all over Brazil. Ceramics for floor covering spread in the region together with all the productive chain related to it (raw-material, transportation and others). Business groups related to coal and other sectors began to invest in the region, elevating Criciúma to the position of main floor-covering ceramics pole in the country. Besides, the city counts on industries in the sectors of plastics, metallurgy, mechanics, electricity material, paper and cardboard packages, editing and publications, food and beverage, wood, furniture and civil construction.

Equidistant from the two largest capitals of South America and two of the largest consumer markets in Mercosur (São Paulo and Buenos Aires), Criciúma is also located at the margins of a Federal Highway (BR 101), which is being duplicated.

The undeniable coal-energetic potential, the largest ceramics industrial park in America, the clothes industry, the leadership in the production of disposable plastic products besides other sectors that commercialize their products in the competitive international market, consolidate the position of Criciúma as a regional pole and a national reference.

Translation: Maria Cecília Pastorelli.
All rights reserved Santa Catarina