Maceió originated from a sugar cane engine where initially a village increased around it. Soon the place gained a port, nowadays in Jaraguá district, that as long as years were gone influenced the village development transforming it into a city. Its condition of port city made Maceió to be the state capital in 1839, which was earlier on Santa Maria Madalena da Alagoa do Sul (Saint Mary Magdalene of the Southern Lake) or simply Alagoa do Sul (nowadays the historic city of Marechal Deodoro).