History of Curitiba
There is a legend telling that around 1648 a group of pioneers founded a small village near the Atuba River while searching for gold. These pioneers venerated Nossa Senhor da Luz and made a special place there for her statue. The legend tells that every morning the image turned her eyes to a pine tree forest, which the pioneers knew was a sacred place of the Indians. The explorers took this as a sign that Nossa Senhora was showing them a special place for their village. Even though they knew that the Indians took them as enemies, the pioneers took the risk and went in to the forest to find this special place. When the pioneers got close to the tribe, a miracle happened: the Indians were peaceful and expecting them to come. Done contact with the leader of the Tingüi tribe, the cacique Tindiqüera would have said the new location and put a stick in the ground, saying "Coré Etuba" ("many pines"). By this stick would have grown a great tree, where today is the zero mark of Curitiba. At that place the pioneers built a chapel in honor of the saint, now called Nossa Senhora da Luz dos Pinhais ("Our Lady of the Light in the Pine Forest").