Mosqueiro

Scholars have attributed the name Mosqueiro to a corruption of the native Tupinambá word moqueio, which referred to the local practice of smoking meat and fish. In the early period of Portuguese colonization, the Tupinambá supplied smoked meat and fish to the city of Belém. The Portuguese, unfamiliar with the term moqueio, called the island Mosqueiro, which was the name of several places on the Iberian Peninsula.{{cite web | title = A Ilha do Mosqueiro na Rota da História | language = Portuguese |trans-title=The Route of History of the Island of Mosqueiro | editor-last = Paiva | editor-first = Paulo | url = http://portalmosqueiro.jimdo.com/hist%C3%B3ria-de-mosqueiro/ | website = Portal Ilha de Mosqueiro | publisher = | accessdate = September 16, 2014 }} In Portuguese, the word mosqueiro means "flypaper".{{cite book|last1=Elwes|first1=Alfred|title=A Dictionary of the Portuguese Language in Two Parts: 1. Portuguese-English|date=1907|publisher=Crosby, Lockwood and Son|location=London|page=255|edition=Fifth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UL89AAAAYAAJ&dq=mosqueiro+flypaper&pg=PA225|accessdate=23 February 2015}}

The Tupinambá had fled to Mosqueiro after the arrival of Europeans in the North-East of Brazil. They were there when the Portuguese arrived. At the beginning of the 18th Century, the French and the Aruã laid siege to the village Murubira on the island for a year.{{cite book |author-last=Nimuendajú |author-first=C. |chapter=The Turiwara and Aruã |chapter-url=https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/hsai:vol3p193-198/vol3p193-198_turiwara.pdf |editor-last=Steward |editor-first=J.H. |date=1948 |title=Handbook of South American Indians |volume=3: The Tropical Forest Tribes |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |pages=195–198 |isbn= |access-date=}}

The rubber boom brought electricity to the island. It also started to be sought as a tourist destination. On 12 January 1976, a {{Convert|1457|m|yd}} long bridge called Ponte Sebastião R. de Oliveira was inaugurated, connecting it to the mainland.

The island has a tropical climate, with an average temperature of {{convert|27|C|F}}. The rainy season peaks in March, while the dry season peaks in November.{{Cite web|title = Brazil-Ilha-do-Mosqueiro|url = http://travel-tourist-information-guide.com/Brazil-ilha-do-mosqueiro|website = travel-tourist-information-guide.com|accessdate = 2015-09-30}}

The Chapéu Virado is located on the plaza bearing its name, at the intersection of avenues 16 de Novembro and Beira Mar. It was originally a modest inn and restaurant of wood construction, dating from the heyday of the rubber plantation industry in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. The hotel was constructed in a mix of European architectural styles, with allowances for the local climate. After the original structure was destroyed by fire, the mayor of Belém and the governor of Pará provided funding for its reconstruction.

The {{lang|pt|Capelinha do Sagrado Coração de Jesus|italic=unset}}, located on the plaza Chapéu Virado, was constructed by Guilherme Augusto de Miranda Filho in fulfillment of a promise he made to God while ill on the island, in exchange for the return of his health. The chapel was dedicated on December 17, 1909, by the acting archbishop of Belém. On the second Sunday in December, the chapel holds a special observation for the patron saint of the people of Mosqueiro.

Located on the plaza Chapéu Virado, the neoclassical Villa Porto Franco was once home to Portuguese artist José Franco.

The Sebastião Rabelo de Oliveira Bridge, at a length of {{convert|1430|m|ft|abbr=on}},{{citation needed|date=December 2015}} connects Mosqueiro with the mainland. The bridge was inaugurated on January 12, 1976, with Brazilian president Ernesto Geisel in attendance.

Since 1988, {{convert|190|ha|km2}} of the island have been set aside as a municipal park by the city of Belém, which is seeking to promote ecotourism. The park includes {{convert|3|km|mi|abbr=on}} of trails. The Brazilian Ministry of the Environment has approved an investment of R$200,000 (approximately US$90,000 {{as of|2014|lc=y}}) in physical infrastructure, including a pier, administrative building, and research center.

Formally part of the city of Belém, Mosqueiro is administratively divided into the following neighbourhoods (bairros):

{{colbegin}}

• Aeroporto
• Ariramba
• Baía do Sol
• Bonfim
• Carananduba
• Caruara
• Chapéu Virado
• Farol
• Furo das Marinhas
• Mangueiras
• Maracajá
• Marahú
• Murubira
• Natal Murubira
• Paraíso
• Porto Arthur
• Praia Grande
• São Francisco
• Vila

{{colend}}

In June 2011, an amphibian identified as belonging to the species Atretochoana eiselti was photographed near Praia de Marahú, on the island of Mosqueiro. A. eiselti, previously known only from two preserved specimens dating from the late 1800s, is the largest known lungless tetrapod.{{cite journal|last1=Hoogmoed|first1=Marinus Steven|last2=Maciel|first2=Adriano Oliveira|last3=Coragem|first3=Juliano Tupan|year=2011|title=Discovery of the largest lungless tetrapod, Atretochoana eiselti (Taylor, 1968) (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae), in its natural habitat in Brazilian Amazonia|url=http://www.museu-goeldi.br/editora/bn/artigos/cnv6n3_2011/discovery(hoogmoed).pdf|journal=Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi: Ciências Naturais|volume=6|issue=3|pages=241–262|issn=1981-8114|accessdate=22 February 2011}}

File:Mosqueiro welcome arch.jpg|alt=Welcome arch on Pará Highway 391, which reads (in Portuguese): "Mosqueiro: our beach, our home" |Welcome arch on Pará Highway 391, which reads (in Portuguese): "Mosqueiro: our beach, our home"

File:Praia do paraiso.jpg|alt=Praia do Paraiso (Paradise Beach), on the north of the island |Praia do Paraiso (Paradise Beach), on the north of the island

File:Mosqueiro_mercado_municipal.jpg|alt=Façade of the municipal market in the town of Vila, in the southwest of the island |Municipal market in the town of Vila, in the southwest of the island

File:Embratel point-to-point dish.jpg|Point-to-point radio dish (retired) at Embratel facility, facing west across the Baia de Marajó

{{reflist}}

{{Wikivoyage-inline|Ilha do Mosqueiro}}

{{Geographic location

|Centre = Mosqueiro

|N = Baia de Marajó

|NE =

|E = Furo das Marinhas

|SE = Furo das Marinhas
Santa Bárbara do Pará

|S = Ananindeua
Belém

|SW = Baia de Santo Antônio
Tatuoca

|W = Baia de Marajó

|NW = Baia de Marajó

}}

{{Municipalities of Pará}}

Category:Islands of the Amazon

Category:Landforms of Pará

Category:River islands of Brazil

Category:Belém