Três Corações is a city in the south of Minas Gerais state in Brazil. Founded in 1760, the city has a population of about 70,000 and covers 826.0 km². Três Corações is the birthplace of football legend Pelé.

History

By the year of 1760, the Portuguese Tomé Martins da Costa had settled down on the Rio Verdes's right bank to explore gold. After some years he built a big farm and started the construction of the "Santíssimos Corações de Jesus, Maria e José" (Joseph, Mary and Jesus's holy hearts) chapel.

In 1764 the Minas Gerais governor, D. Luiz Lobo Diogo Silva, visited Tomé M. Costa and noticed some small houses near by.

In 1790, Captain Domingos Dias de Barros, Tomé's son in law, built a bigger chapel on the site where the old one stood.

So the village has been known as Três Corações (Three Hearts in Portuguese) because of the name of the chapel (hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph).

That is the political and official history. There is also the popular history that says there were 3 women who lived in Três Corações. They were very "popular" and every cowboy who passed by the region fell in love with them.

There is also the explanation that the river that passes through the city forms the shape of 3 hearts along its course.

External link

• Três Corações City Hall website