In 1871, on the day after the Free Womb Law, the Order of Saint Benedict decided, in its General Chapter of Bahia, to free all of its slaves, in Brazil, more than four thousand, without any compensation. Deprived of labor, Farm São Caetano was expropriated by the Imperial Government to install the Colonial Nucleus of São Caetano on 28 July 1877. The lands of the farm were divided into lots and sold to Italian settlers between 1877 and 1892, when the last family of immigrants entered the Nucleus. The first group of families settled in the nucleus had embarked in the port of Genoa and arrived in Brazil on the Italian ship Europa. All the families were from the commune of Cappella Maggiore and its surroundings, in the province of Treviso, in the region of Veneto, northern Italy.