Witmarsum Colony (Portuguese: Colônia Witmarsum) is a Mennonite settlement in the municipality of Palmeira, in the Campos Gerais region of the Brazilian state of Paraná, about 50 kilometres (31mi) from Curitiba. It was founded on 7 June 1951 by Russian Mennonites who moved from the Krauel valley in Santa Catarina, in what is now the municipality of Witmarsum. The colony is known for its dairy cooperative and its cheeses.
History
The settlers' ancestors had moved from Friesland via Prussia to Russia in the 18th century, and fled the Soviet regime in 1929. In 1930 they arrived in Brazil and settled in the valley of the Krauel River. From there they moved on and, on 7 June 1951, bought the Fazenda Cancela, a farm owned by Roberto Glasser, founding the Witmarsum Colony. The farm buildings were converted for community use: the main hall served for worship, assemblies and festivities, other sheds became classrooms, a milk plant, a store and an office, and the farmhouse was used as a hospital. The colony was organised on a community basis, with rural lots averaging 50 hectares (120 acres).
Geography
The colony covers about 7,800 hectares (19,000 acres) and has five settlement nuclei (glebas), numbered 1 to 5, arranged around an administrative, commercial and social centre at the former Fazenda Cancela headquarters, which now houses the Heimat-Museum.
Economy
The Cooperativa Agroindustrial Witmarsum was founded on 28 October 1952 by 38 colonists. In 2022 it marketed 150,000 litres of packaged milk a month and processed another 400,000 litres into about 30 tonnes of cheese of eleven types; it had 592 members and 178 employees, and also handled soybeans, wheat, canola and maize. Tourism has grown since 2003, with a museum, cafés, restaurants, guesthouses, craft shops and breweries.
Demographics and culture
In 2001 the colony had 1,599 inhabitants, 1,183 of them of German descent. The ACMPW gives the current population as about 3,000. Residents use three languages: Plautdietsch, Standard German and Portuguese. The colony has a folk group, a choir, a library, a music school, a theatre group and a historical museum opened in 1989 in the old farmhouse of the Fazenda Cancela.
Brazil