[10] The history of the city begins in June 1758, through a donation that Gomes Freire de Andrade, Count of Bobadela, made to Colonel Thomáz Luiz Osório, giving him land that lay on the banks of the Lagoa dos Patos.

In 1763, fleeing the Spanish invasion, many inhabitants of the village Rio Grande sought refuge in the land belonging to Osório.

[11] In southern Brazil, 'pelota' can refer to a leather raft, and the name of the city comes from the boats made of cockspur coral tree covered with animal skins, used to cross rivers in ranching times.

[4] In the first years of the 20th century, progress was stimulated by the Banco Pelotense (Bank of Pelotas), founded in 1906 by local investors.

[13] As it is situated on a plain near the ocean, the urban area lies on a low elevation, being, on average, 7 meters (23 ft) above sea level.

The climate is humid subtropical (Köppen: Cfa), a type found in Southeastern Australia (very homogeneous to Sydney, in terms of temperatures, albeit cloudier and wetter),[14][15] without major temperature deviations as found in Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia (USA), and in Shanghai, China (but still considered very high by Brazilian standards), due to the continentality and polar vortex position in those southern cities of the United States and the Chinese city.

[23] On 5 July 2019, the downtown area of the city registered, for 40 minutes, snow flurries with liquid drizzle, just before noon (with no accumulation).

Pelotas is 55 km (34 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean, and possesses a beach along the Lagoa dos Patos, called Laranjal.

Formerly held in different locations each year, today it is always celebrated in the Centro Internacional de Cultura e Eventos (International Center of Culture and Events).

The first immigrants to the region were the Portuguese, coming mostly from the Azores, something which profoundly influenced the culture of the city, especially in its architecture and cuisine.

Also worthy to mention are other ethnicities that settled in Pelotas, such as Africans (descendants of slaves, mainly from Angola), Italians, Poles, French, Jews, Lebanese Arabs, etc.

Before the arrival of the first European settlers, the area of the southern part of Rio Grande do Sul, including the municipality of Pelotas, was occupied by Amerindian groups.

The region is the largest producer of peaches for the country's storehouse industry, along with other products such as asparagus, cucumber, fig and strawberries.

The rural area, also called the "colony", due to the fact that German immigrants built isolated farming communities there, is characterized by the production of fruit, rice, and livestock.

The city also has a bus system, a port on the shores of the São Gonçalo Channel, and the junction of two major highways (BR-116 and BR-392) nearby.

The largest monument in Pelotas is the iron Caixa d'água, which is located in the Piratinino de Almeida Square, and is the only one of its kind in all of Latin America.

Its design was fashioned after the Neoclassical style, and was affected by Art Nouveau after 1970 when the building was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt.

The São Francisco de Paula Metropolitan Cathedral is considered the city's and the region most important religious edifice, due to its size, beauty and the works of art found within its interior.

The cathedral shelters the image of Saint Francis of Paola, by an unknown artist, which was brought from Colônia do Sacramento.

The painter Aldo Locatelli, came from Italy especially to make the frescoes on the ceiling and walls of the cathedral, at the invitation of Dom Antônio Záttera, bishop of Pelotas at the time.

Also deserving attention is the Museum of the Baroness, which was constructed in the 19th century, occupying an area of approximately 7 hectares, possessing 22 parts and an interior patio.