The municipality contains part of the 1,848 hectares (4,570 acres) Quarta Colônia State Park, created in 2005.

The first Europeans to come into the area were Jesuit priests who in the 16th century began establishing the so-called Reductions or Missions as they also were named in the wider region (i.e. Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay).

At a later date with the expulsion of the Jesuit order by both the Spanish and Portuguese crowns from South America left the area inactive as far as European activities were concerned.

The local indigenous population suffered attacks by Paulistas from the north who, amongst other things, made it their business to capture Indians to be put up for sale in the slave markets of São Paulo, etc.

In 1857, a new wave of immigration started to affect the region, this time attracting Germanic settlers and subsequently peoples of other European origins.