The area of the city was first settled by Portuguese immigrants in the mid
18th century, but it would grow to the status of village only with the arrival
of the first German immigrants in 1824. At that time, Novo Hamburgo was part of
São Leopoldo, the cradle of German immigration in Brazil. The Germans
established a prosperous agricultural colony and eventually started to supply
the state's main urban centers at that time with food.
Some of the immigrants also brought
handicraft skills, valuable for a self-sufficient, isolated economy, as the
valley and the state were at
