Cataguases

• Name — Cataguases • Official Name — Municipality of Cataguases • Settlement Type — Municipality • Mapsize — 250px • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Name — Brazil • Subdivision Type1 — Region • Subdivision Name1 — Southeast • Subdivision Type2 — State • Subdivision Name2 — Minas Gerais • Subdivision Type3 — Intermediate region • Subdivision Name3 — Juiz de Fora • Subdivision Type4 — Immediate region • Subdivision Name4 — Cataguases • Parts Type — Districts • Parts Style — list • Parts — Cataguases (seat), Aracati de Minas, Cataguarino, Glória de Cataguases, Sereno, and Vista Alegre • Established Title — Founded • Established Date — 26 May 1826 • Established Title1 — Municipality installed • Established Date1 — 8 September 1877 • Established Title2 — City status • Established Date2 — 13 September 1881 • Leader Title — Mayor • Leader Name — José Henriques • Leader Party — MDB • Leader Title1 — Term • Leader Name1 — 2025–2028 • Unit Pref — Metric • Area Total Km2 — 491.767 • Elevation M — 169 • Population Total — 66261 • Population As Of — 2022 census • Population Est — 67732 • Pop Est As Of — 2025 • Population Density Km2 — auto • Population Demonym — cataguasense • Timezone — BRT • Utc Offset — −3 • Area Code Type — Area code • Area Code — 32 • Blank Name — HDI (2010) • Blank Info — 0.751 (high) • Blank1 Name — GDP per capita (2023) • Blank1 Info — R$32,290.72 • Website — https: www.cataguases.mg.gov.br/

In the 1920s, the city was associated with the Brazilian cinema pioneer Humberto Mauro and a generation of writers for the short-lived Revista Verde. Humberto Mauro shot there some films that earned him a good reputation nationwide. He later made Braza Dormida (Sleeping Fire) and O Descobrimento do Brasil (The Finding of Brazil) and was a reputed Tupi language scholar. Industrialisation changed the town significantly and caused some of its citizens to become very rich in the 1920s and 1930s. As a result, the city centre was remodeled accordingly to the ultimate architecture styles. The architect Oscar Niemeyer and painters Cândido Portinari, Djanira and Emeric Marcier are some of the Brazilian artists who left contributions there at that time. After three decades of wealth, the town lost its prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. The economic crisis and the changes due to the modernisation of the industries provoked high unemployment rates and depreciation of salaries, reducing the town's wealth. In 2003, the town was the site of an ecological accident caused by the spilling of chemical waste that affected the brook Cágado and the rivers Pomba and Paraíba do Sul, threatening the water supply of more than 20,000,000 Brazilians (including the state of Rio de Janeiro).

Cataguases experiences a tropical savanna climate (Aw under Köppen climate classification). Temperatures are high (above 18 °C (64.4 °F)) all over the year, and low temperatures lasting for a whole day are rare, and generally only occur in the dry season. The wet season starts in September and goes until May, while the dry season goes from May to September. Floods are not uncommon in the town, and generally there is one per year, in December, January or February. On the other side, during the dry season Rio Pomba has considerably less water than in other periods, and some people have respiratory diseases related to low air humidity.