Parnamirim is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, located 17 kilometers south of the state capital, Natal. Part of the Natal Metropolitan Region, it covers an area of 124 km² and had a population of inhabitants according to the 2022 Brazilian Census, as reported by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), making it the third most populous municipality in the state, following Natal and Mossoró, and the 115th in Brazil. Conurbated with the capital, bordering it to the north, Parnamirim is experiencing significant economic growth, particularly in the real estate sector.
Emancipated from Natal in 1958, Parnamirim is internationally recognized as the "Trampoline of Victory" due to its historical ties to World War II, when it served as the site of the American airbase Parnamirim Field. Its strategic global location made it a key departure point for numerous American aircraft of all types, transporting troops to the African front. The significant presence of American soldiers influenced the local population, introducing their culture, stimulating the local economy, and even participating in the social life of residents at the time.
Parnamirim boasts the highest Human Development Index (HDI) among municipalities in Rio Grande do Norte, with a value of 0.766. It is home to the Barreira do Inferno Launch Center, the first rocket launch base in Brazil and South America. Tourist attractions such as the Cashew of Pirangi, the beaches of Cotovelo and Pirangi do Norte, and the hosting of events and music concerts during the high season, make the city one of the primary tourist destinations in Rio Grande do Norte.
Etymology The name Parnamirim comes from the Tupi term “Paranã-mirim,” which means "small river," derived from paranã ("large river; sea") and mirĩ ("small"). Although several rivers and streams still flow through the area corresponding to the municipality of Parnamirim, it is believed that the “Paranã-mirim” known to the Potiguar indigenous people, who inhabited the Captaincy of Rio Grande during the colonial period (17th century), referred to a watercourse that has since disappeared.
History Origins The first land grants in the area now comprising Parnamirim date back to the 17th century. However, until the early 20th century, much of the region remained uninhabited and covered by dense forest. The exception was the valley of the Pium River, which had been settled since the first half of the 18th century. In 1881, the Natal-Nova Cruz Railway began operations, with its tracks passing through what is now the municipality, then part of Natal. Despite this, the area remained sparsely populated.
In the early 20th century, Portuguese immigrant Manuel Duarte Machado, who had resided in Natal since 1903, acquired a significant portion of the land that now forms the municipality. These lands stretched from the Guarapes plantation in Macaíba to the Cajupiranga plantation, which gave rise to the current neighborhood of the same name, and included the Pitimbu plantation, intersected by the river of the same name. The Pitimbu plantation was purchased from João Duarte da Silva and his wife, Joanna Leopoldina Duarte da Silva, while the Cajupiranga plantation belonged to Francisco Pereira de Brito and Maria Honorina de Cerqueira Brito.
In 1927, French pilot Paul Vachet visited Natal to select a site for an aerodrome, to be built by the French aviation company Compagnie Générale Aéropostale (CGA). The chosen site, approximately one thousand square meters in the Pitimbu plantation, was donated by Manuel Machado to Vachet, who transferred ownership to CGA via a deed. Construction of the aerodrome, which coincided with the rise of air transport in Brazil, took about three months, as stipulated in the contract, beginning on July 21, 1927. The first landing occurred at 11:45 p.m. on October 14, 1927, by the Nungesser-et-Coli aircraft, which departed from Saint-Louis, in what is now Senegal (then a French colony), bound for Natal. The trip across the Atlantic, which took more than 19 hours, was captained by Dieudonné Costes and Joseph Le Brix.
On September 27, 1928, the aerodrome also began receiving domestic flights, with the Laté-25 aircraft landing in Natal at dusk after departing from São Paulo. To improve access to the airfield, the Government of Rio Grande do Norte constructed a dirt road in the same year, starting at the Guarapes plantation and passing through the Natal-Nova Cruz Railway. The airfield was expanded in 1933 when Manuel Machado sold adjacent land to Air France, the French state-owned company that acquired CGA. Air France operated the airfield until June 1940, when France surrendered to Nazi Germany during World War II, and the aerodrome was decommissioned.
World War II
In July 1941, Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas signed a mutual defense agreement allowing the United States to establish airbases in Northeast Brazil, including one in Natal. On March 2, 1942, Vargas enacted Decree-Law , transforming the former CGA airfield into the Natal Air Force Base (BANT). East of BANT, the United States constructed Parnamirim Field at a cost of US$9.5 million.
Approximately six thousand workers, mostly migrants from rural Rio Grande do Norte, participated in the construction of the new base. These workers rested in canvas tents set up west of the bases, forming the nucleus of a settlement that would become the modern city, as many workers established permanent residences there. The United States also contributed by building a 20-kilometer paved road connecting both BANT and Parnamirim Field to the Port of Natal, replacing the old dirt road. During the war, the Americans viewed their base as the vertex of a triangle known as the Trampoline of Victory, with its other points in North Africa and Southern Europe.
In October 1946, just over a year after the end of World War II, the United States handed Parnamirim Field over to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), and the Natal Air Force Base began operating a passenger terminal. Meanwhile, the settlement south of Natal continued to grow, gaining its first health center and school in 1948. On December 23, 1948, the area was elevated to district status under State Law No. 146, authored by Deputy Antônio Soares Filho and sanctioned by Governor José Augusto Varela, with the support of Natal's mayor, Sylvio Pedroza. That same year, construction began on a chapel, which was halted in 1949 due to lack of funds and resumed in 1950. The chosen patron saint was Our Lady of Fátima.
On February 9, 1949, the new district, named Parnamirim, was officially established with the opening of a judicial registry and the appointment of its first notary, Otávio Gomes de Castro, who also founded the local branch of the Assembly of God on May 12, 1946. On November 24, 1951, BANT’s passenger station became the Augusto Severo International Airport, through Federal Law -A, enacted by Senate President Café Filho, a native of Natal.BRASIL. Law No. 1,473-A, of November 24, 1951. Assigns a new name to the airport of the capital of Rio Grande do Norte. Rio de Janeiro, November 30, 1951. On April 1, 1952, the chapel of Our Lady of Fátima was elevated to parish status by the Bishop of Natal, Dom Marcolino Esmeraldo de Souza Dantas. The parish was inaugurated on the morning of April 26 with a mass led by BANT’s chaplain, Father João Correia de Aquino, who became the first parish priest.
Throughout the 1950s, the district of Parnamirim continued to develop. In 1958, State Deputy Gastão Mariz de Faria introduced a bill in the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Norte to elevate the district to municipality status. The bill was approved and became State Law on December 17, 1958, signed by Governor Dinarte Mariz (Gastão’s uncle), officially creating the municipality, detached from the capital.
From establishment to name change The new municipality was formally established on January 10, 1959, when Deoclécio Marques de Lucena, a retired Brazilian Air Force lieutenant, was appointed as Parnamirim’s first mayor by the state governor. The inauguration ceremony took place at the Presidente Roosevelt School and was presided over by Otávio Gomes de Castro, the local notary for a decade. However, the new municipality did not meet the requirements of the time, as it had fewer than ten thousand inhabitants, the minimum required by the state constitution for creating new municipalities. Additionally, the local population disagreed with the municipal boundaries, as both BANT and the international airport, which had spurred the city’s growth, remained within Natal’s territory. Another territorial dispute involved the area now known as Passagem de Areia, which belonged to Macaíba and was separated from Parnamirim by the Natal-Recife Railway, as outlined in Article 2 of Law :
In November 1959, the first direct elections for mayor, deputy mayor, and councilors were held separately. Ilson Santos de Oliveira was elected mayor, taking office on February 1, 1960, and serving until January 31, 1964. However, his running mate for deputy mayor, Raimundo Barbosa de Souza, lost to Francisco Fernandes Pimenta, a political opponent. The Municipal Council saw ten councilors elected from four different parties, half of whom were affiliated with the National Democratic Union (UDN), the deputy mayor’s party. Approximately people voted in the election.
On May 12, 1962, State Law , signed by Governor Aluízio Alves, partially resolved Parnamirim’s boundary disputes, except for Passagem de Areia, which remained part of Macaíba. The municipality’s area expanded to include the Taborda stream, and both the airbase and Augusto Severo Airport were transferred from Natal to Parnamirim, increasing its area to . From 1964, Parnamirim began receiving electricity from the Paulo Afonso Hydroelectric Complex in Bahia, replacing the generators previously operated at BANT.
On October 12, 1965, the Ministry of Aeronautics officially established the Barreira do Inferno Launch Center (CLBI) along the RN-063 (Rota do Sol), which, within a decade, earned Natal the title of Brazil’s Space Capital. In 1969, the municipality adopted its first flag, and on February 24, 1970, the Ministry of Aeronautics decommissioned the Natal Air Force Base, transforming it into a pilot training center. The 1970 census recorded Parnamirim’s population at , up from in 1960.
In the early 1970s, during the administration of Mayor Antenor Neves de Oliveira (February 1, 1970 – January 31, 1973), the city implemented its first water supply system. On November 29, 1973, the FAB’s training center was redesignated as the Tactical Applications and Equipment Replenishment Center (CATRE), and on December 6, Parnamirim was renamed "Eduardo Gomes" in reference to the Aeronautics Minister who attended the CLBI’s inauguration. This change, supported by the military, was enacted through State Law , authored by Deputy Moacyr Duarte, approved by the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Norte, and signed by Governor Cortez Pereira, without consulting the local population, which opposed the renaming.
1974–present