Santarém (Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: [sɐ̃taˈɾẽj]) is a town and municipality in the western part of the state of Pará in Brazil.

Because of the crystalline waters of the Tapajós River, Santarém has more than 100 km (62 mi) of natural beaches, such as those of the village of Alter do Chão, known as the "Caribbean in Brazil."

[2] Alter do Chão is also home to Sairé, one of the most important folklore festivals of the region, which is held annually in September.

The first written references to the Tapajós Indian settlement in the area date back to 1542, when Francisco Orellana sacked one of their corn plantations.

The Jesuits took on the work of founding a village for missionary purposes on the site, where Father António Vieira was known to have visited in 1659.

Two of the cannons from the fortress have been installed at the city's airport, where they can be seen from the passenger terminal; two others are located in the Centenário Square, and two in the SUDAM Campus of the Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA) Santarém is bordered by the Amazon and the Tapajós rivers.

Santarém is the seventh-largest city in the north region of Brazil, behind Manaus, Belém, Porto Velho, Ananindeua, Macapá and Rio Branco.

Since the year 2000, Santarém's population has increased due to that migration, as well as people being attracted to its improved infrastructure, health care, schools, and other amenities.

In 2008, the village of Mojui dos Campos was designated as an independent City, so its population was withdrawn from the Santarém total.

Santarém is an important regional market center in the Lower Amazon, located midway between the larger cities of Belém at the coast and Manaus upriver.

The city has seen many 'cycles' of development dominated by one or a few economic activities, including rubber extraction (in the last century), coffee production, and gold mining.

Situated 15  km from downtown, the airport can be reached by car or bus in about 20 minutes via Fernando Guilhon Highway.

The rivers and waterways are still the central means of transporting passenger and cargo due to the poor conditions of the highways and the high price of airplane travel.

The docks are administrated by the CDP (Companhia Docas do Pará) and are the second most important in the state, second only to Belém, due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean.

It is named after a United States-born Brazilian, Richard Henington (born May 19, 1830), who originated in Crystal Springs, Mississippi and immigrated to Brazil in 1867, arriving on August 16, 1868, and settling in Santarém.

SAMU is also based in the city; it rescues victims of all kinds of accidents, working many times together with the State Fire Department.

Radio amateurs maintain a VHF repeater operating on 146.950  MHz that can reach more than 100  km, covering the village of Alter do Chão and the cities of Belterra, Mojui dos Campos, Óbidos and Oriximiná.

The port has dramatically stimulated soybean production in the area due to improving the transport of the commodity crop.

In late 2003 Greenpeace launched a campaign claiming the new port has increased deforestation of local rain forest, damaging the regional habitat, as farmers have cleared land to make way for soy crops.

[8] Cargill responded to criticisms of the port by emphasizing its contribution to encouraging economic development in the local province, one of the poorest in Brazil.