Itapira

Itapira is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. Its population in 2004 was 66,861 and the area is 518.89 km². The elevation is 643 m. Founded around 1820, the name Itapira (meaning Stone Fish in the Tupi language) was officially adopted in 1890 . The current mayor is Antonio Hélio Nicolai, known as Toninho Bellini, and a keen football supporter.

Itapira services an agricultural hinterland which grows oranges, sugar-cane, cattle and (now-declining) coffee, but is also a manufacturing centre, specializing in wood and paper products, agricultural machinery, and ethanol production. The establishment in 1937 (by spiritist groups) of the pioneering Instituto Bairral psychiatric hospital in Itapira has fostered a well-developed health sector, both public and private. The town is home to a large number of professionals (such as the noted economist J.B. de Souza Ferreira Fo.), many of whom commute to neighbouring towns such as Campinas.

The town's Historical Museum displays interesting relics of one of the last major battles of the Paulista War, which was fought nearby.