Where to Stay in Criciúma, Santa Catarina

What is Criciúma known for?

Flooring and home materials are the industry here, and Criciúma stands at the centre of that trade in Brazil, second in size only to one other such centre in the world. The mines are not hidden. The Monumento ao Mineiro and the Mina de Visitação Otávio Fontana keep that older work in plain sight, and the Museu Carlos Augusto Borba do Criciúma Esporte Clube attaches to the sports club that carries the city's name.

What are the main landmarks in Criciúma?

Mining supplies the emblems. The Monumento ao Mineiro honours the miner and the Mina de Visitação Otávio Fontana takes visitors underground, while the Memorial Casa do Ferroviário Mário Ghisi remembers the railwayman. Museums fill the rest of the list.

The Museu Municipal Histórico e Geográfico Augusto Casagrande, the Museu Universitário do Extremo Sul Catarinense, the Museu da Infância and the Museu de Zoologia Profª Morgana Cirimbelli Gaidzinski divide the subjects between them, and the Monumento às Etnias and the Casa da Cultura Padre Bernardo Junkes complete the set.

What is the history of Criciúma?

Criciúma dates from 1880. Two monuments carry the early record: the Monumento às Etnias for the peoples gathered here and the Monumento ao Mineiro for the work of the mine, which together say more about the first century than any surviving street does. The mine can be entered.

Mina de Visitação Otávio Fontana is kept open to visitors, and the Memorial Casa do Ferroviário Mário Ghisi holds the railwayman's part of the same century. Manufacturing followed the mine. Flooring and home materials became the trade Criciúma is known for, and the city stands at the centre of that industry in Brazil, second in scale only to one other centre in the world.

Collections keep pace with it. The Museu Municipal Histórico e Geográfico Augusto Casagrande and the Museu Universitário do Extremo Sul Catarinense set out the regional record, the Casa da Cultura Padre Bernardo Junkes carries the cultural side, and the Museu da Infância, the Museu de Zoologia Profª Morgana Cirimbelli Gaidzinski and the Museu Carlos Augusto Borba do Criciúma Esporte Clube take childhood, natural history and sport in turn.

Where is Criciúma?

Criciúma holds some 236 square kilometres of southern Santa Catarina. The city lies about 180 kilometres south of Florianópolis, the state capital, and roughly 900 kilometres south of São Paulo. Around it spreads the Extremo Sul Catarinense.

Only the Mina de Visitação Otávio Fontana goes below the surface, while the Monumento ao Mineiro and the Monumento às Etnias stand on top of it.

What is the climate of Criciúma?

Seasons run in reverse here. Criciúma sits within the subtropical band of the southern hemisphere, so the warm part of the year falls around January and the cool part around July, which reverses the northern pattern. Rain or shine, the Museu da Infância, the Museu de Zoologia Profª Morgana Cirimbelli Gaidzinski and the Mina de Visitação Otávio Fontana can all be done under cover, so a wet week matters less here than it would on the coast.

How do you get to Criciúma?

Florianópolis, the state capital, stands roughly 180 kilometres to the north, and São Paulo is nearer 900 kilometres off, which sets the scale of any approach to Criciúma. Industry keeps the routes busy. Flooring and home materials move out of the city in volume, and the same links carry visitors in to the Mina de Visitação Otávio Fontana and the museums of the Extremo Sul Catarinense.