Its name is derived from the mineral springs in its territory and their location, which before the city's founding were part of the municipality of São Pedro (Saint Peter).

[20] The economy at that time was based on coffee production, and many Italian families settled in these regions to work under partnership contracts to replace the slave labor.

The first properties they acquired were the farms Palmeiras and Limoeiro, followed by the lands of Floresta Escura, Gonçalves, Tuncum and Araquá, as well as houses, lots, and two machines to process coffee beans.

A year later, a group of townspeople bought a lot measuring 100,000 square metres (1,076,400 sq ft) around the original wood bath house, where they built a health resort.

[1][25] To promote the development and exploitation of the medicinal waters in an economically viable way, Octavio Moura Andrade conceived and designed a city focused on hydrotherapy and residential purposes: a spa town.

Águas de São Pedro was created as a hydromineral spa, fully planned and aiming to serve both those who needed treatment and tourists looking for fun and leisure.

The urban planner Jorge de Macedo Vieira was chosen to integrate the use of space with the mineral waters, topography, soil, and climate, conducting a two-year-long detailed study of the area prior to designing the city.

It was only in 1940 that the project was completed, being recorded in the Real Estate Registry Office of the District of São Pedro under number 1, in accordance with the requirements of the Brazilian Federal Decree-Law No.

[26] As part of this project several buildings were constructed, including a large luxury hotel to welcome tourists, as well as a casino,[27] one of the first in the country with activity regulated by the government.

Several roads were reconstructed, including an 8-kilometre (5 mi) road connecting São Pedro to the springs that can handle the traffic of heavy vehicles; construction of an airport (now São Pedro Airport) in a 40-alqueire area (239.2 acres, or 96.8 ha) with four runways, a departure lounge, electricity, telephone, running water, hangar and refueling station.

[29] In 2013 a group of companies led by Telefônica Vivo announced plans to make Águas de São Pedro the first digital city in the country.

[33] The second stage would begin in 2016, with the installation of interactive kiosks in public places, the training of teachers to work with new technologies, and the scheduling of medical appointments over the Internet,[34][35] but ended up not being implemented.

[39] The city is located at latitude 22°35'50.422" south and longitude 47°53'02.309" west,[6] and at a distance of 184 kilometres (114 mi) northwest of the São Paulo state capital.

The geomorphology of the area of Águas de São Pedro is characterized by reliefs of low, soft hills – separated by valleys without major river plains – and it is slightly rugged, with sites that only rarely exceed 200 metres (656 ft) of unevenness.

The municipality is at an altitude of 515 metres (1,690 ft) above sea level,[6] and located in a geographic region called the São Paulo State Peripheral Depression, near the border with the Western Plateau, in an area of basaltic cuestas.

The sediments are composed of thin to medium arenites, white-orange to reddish in color, and with tangential cross-bedding in a mid-size to large base; these features are indicative of temporary rivers in the past in a semiarid environment.

[40] The city is situated in the central part of the Medium Tietê Zone, which occupies about 15,000 square kilometres (5,792 sq mi), or two-fifths of the total area of the Peripheral Depression.

[40] The Piracicaba basin extends over an area of 12,568.72 square kilometres (4,853 sq mi),[42] covering the southeastern state of São Paulo and the southern end of Minas Gerais.

[46] The original vegetation in the area of Águas de São Pedro was the cerrado, a mixed formation classified into two strata: the upper stratum, composed of trees with variable height of from 3 to 6 metres (10 to 20 ft), with crowns often sparse and spaced apart, and the lower stratum, composed of continuous coverage of grasses and other plants less than a meter tall, and trees with trunks and twisted and gnarled branches, thick bark, large leaves, and thorns.

[55] The history of the Catholic Church in Águas de São Pedro started when Mrs. Maria Julia das Dores Andrade, mother of the city founder, asked him to build the "House of God" along with the construction of the Grande Hotel.

Years after the foundation of the parish, a new site near the central area of the city was selected for the construction of a new church, but those plans were not completed because Canon Marcos Van Inn, the creator of the project, died.

The municipality of Águas de São Pedro is integrated with the Tourism Region of the Itaqueri Ridge and has as its main attraction its medicinal mineral waters.

According to the Brazilian Secretary of Foreign Trade (SECEX), in 2016 the exports of Águas de São Pedro totaled only US$838, all originated from Australia.

[71] As green areas the city has the Mini Horto (Mini Garden), a place with a plant nursery and a pond, and two large parks: Águas de São Pedro had the Museu das Telecomunicações "Gilberto Affonso Penna" (Museum of Telecommunications "Gilberto Affonso Penna"), better known as Museu do Rádio (Radio Museum), which was inaugurated in 2003 and had a collection of 117 items, ranging from gramophones to radio transmitters and typewriters.

The Fonte Almeida Salles is named in honor of the homonymous doctor of the Secretariat of Agriculture of the State of São Paulo who first visited it and tested the medicinal qualities of the water.

The "ART'S TRAMA – Artisans Association of São Pedro and Region", along with other institutions such as the municipal government or the Superintendence of Craft Work in Communities (SUTACO),[89] bring together many craftsmen from the region and provide space for production, exhibition and sale of crafts such as quilts and crochet table runners, flowers produced with dry corn leaves, and woven pieces produced on looms.

[95] The mayor holds executive power and has nine secretariats under his command: Administration, Education, Finances, Tourism, Environment and Safety, Health, Social and Thermal Promotion, Public Works, and Urban Services.

[110] After the Department of Highways (DER) approved the project,[111] the construction began on 22 August 2014,[112] was finished[113] and the state governor officially declared the work completed by inaugurating the last kilometer built on 16 March 2018.

Electricity is provided to the city by the Companhia Paulista de Força e Luz (São Paulo State Power and Light Company).

[125] Other problematic cases such as water catchment, siltation,[126] and environmental degradation[127] have caused the mayor to consider not renewing the city's contract with the company.