Brazilian cities: unusual and interesting facts

Pelé played for the football team of this port near São Paulo, which has Latin America's largest seaport.

Germany beat Brazil 7-1 here in a World Cup semi-final, with the Germans going 5-0 up in the first half hour. It is the capital of Minas Gerais.

With a name meaning "saviour", this hub of Bahia state is home to over 3 million people and was Brazil's original capital.

Taking design elements from Le Corbusier, this central city was begun in the 1950s and has a distinctive modern cathedral.

A giant sculpture proposed to be built in this Pernambuco state capital was so rude-looking that people stormed the city hall to protest against it.

Before the World Cup, Brazil fans broke into a training centre in this megacity and attacked their own players.

There were piranhas swimming in the flooded streets of this southern city in spring 2024.

In 2021, a cheeky macaw managed to turn off the water supply valve in a bus station in this state capital of Mato Grosso do Sul.

In a protest against COVID-19 measures, a newspaper office in this town fell victim to an arson attack - by a fireman.

A man threw a passion fruit at coronavirus protesters in this state capital in Paraná, hitting a 73-year-old lady on the head.

In 2024, a woman wheeled her dead uncle into a bank here under the pretext of getting him to co-sign for a loan. This city has hosted the Olympics and the World Cup final.

Hospitals in this Amazonian city ran out of oxygen during the 2020 pandemic.

A plane flight from this Pará city to Belem crashed after the pilots and air traffic controllers were distracted by listening to a football match on the radio.

Edmundo, a footballer from this Rio suburb, is famous for boozing with a chimpanzee and killing several people while drink-driving.