The history of Jurerê and Jurerê Internacional: from the fishing Jurerê to the planned district

Before the development: fishing and a communal field

Wikipedia, a secondary source, says that the region now called Jurerê stayed preserved until the 20th century and that the beach was generally known as Praia do Forte. According to the researcher Marina Toneli Siqueira (UFSC), the area was a communal field, land for collective use for grazing, firewood and water, part of the Azorean settlement model of the Island. The regional press describes the lands of the so-called Vila Caldeirão as inhabited only by fishermen and says there were about 20 wattle-and-daub houses on the site.

In the 1920s, according to Wikipedia, the shipbuilder Antônio Amaro was compensated with land in the north of the Island after his shipyard left the city centre because of the Hercílio Luz bridge works. The regional press tells the same exchange from the area of the old Desterro Cemetery, which occupied the bridge head, and an undergraduate final-year project at IFSC (2025) dates the transaction to 1922. On what came next, the sources differ: Wikipedia says Aderbal Ramos da Silva bought the land from the widow in 1935 and that Imobiliária Jurerê appeared in 1956, while the IFSC work says the land was sold in 1951 to Annito Zeno Petry, in the name of Imobiliária de Jurerê Ltda.

Niemeyer's Jurerê

According to FloripAmanhã, on 22 April 1957 the architect Oscar Niemeyer committed, in a letter signed with Aderbal Ramos da Silva, of Imobiliária Jurerê, to designing the urban plan for the Loteamento Praia do Forte. The source itself regards it as the first planned subdivision in the capital, a claim we did not verify. The IFSC work adds that Niemeyer visited Praia do Forte in 1957, spoke at the Florianópolis Engineers' Club, and that the project included holiday houses, a hotel and a restaurant.

The plan covers the area between the SC-402 and Rua das Algas, with 32 blocks crossed by avenues 15 metres wide, and it included gardens along the shore, with no buildings facing the sea. The regional press recalls that Niemeyer also planned pedestrian circulation along exclusive avenues giving access to the beach.

Habitasul and the birth of Jurerê Internacional

According to Wikipedia, Habitasul began negotiating a large subdivision in Jurerê in mid-1978 and launched Jurerê Internacional by incorporating older subdivisions, such as the one designed by Niemeyer. Siqueira places the purchase of the rest of the tract in the late 1970s and explains that the name Internacional served to set the new development apart from an earlier, smaller initiative by local businessmen and politicians, which became known as Jurerê Nacional or Tradicional. The district was opened by the group on 6 November 1980, according to ND Mais, in a special feature that carries the company's account.

The Sol e Mar Bangalôs hotel, now the Jurerê Praia Hotel, opened in December 1980, according to Siqueira, and marked the group's presence as an investor in the project. Wikipedia says it was built that year and marks the boundary with the older Jurerê. Also according to Siqueira, the hotel made the first commercial contact with tour operators, especially Argentine and Uruguayan ones.

Siqueira records that IPUF regards Jurerê Internacional as the first planned seaside resort in Santa Catarina. From the developer's information, it was designed to be built in stages, over 12 million square metres, with streets for cars, pedestrian avenues, paths along the beach and its own sanitation system. According to NSC Total, in marketing content, the plan removed the traditional Avenida Atlântica and created a setback between the beach and the residential blocks, which made room for the Passeio dos Namorados, and the houses were designed without walls.

In the 1990s, according to Siqueira, the group hired the American firm Edward Durell Stone Architects for a new urbanisation and landscaping plan, intended to make the resort also a district for permanent residence.

How the area grew

The district's developments include the hotels IL Campanário, with 288 apartments, and Jurerê Beach Village, with 242, and the open-air shopping centre Jurerê Open, which NSC Total, in marketing content, says opened in 1994 as the first of its kind in Santa Catarina. In February 2026, Grupo Wish and Habitasul announced a joint venture to manage the two hotels, according to a law firm that cited the sector's press.

Jurerê Tradicional and the local community

Jurerê Tradicional, also called Jurerê Velho, is the older part, subdivided from the 1950s by Imobiliária Jurerê, and keeps a local community that includes fishermen, according to Wikipedia. The same source records that, according to the city hall's records, the two sides form a single district.

According to Siqueira, communities in the surrounding area, near the Ponta Grossa Fort and the SC-403 road, still keep traces of the original settlement, with descendants of Azorean settlers and fishermen. Getting to know these parts is a way of getting closer to the place's fishing origins and of valuing that heritage.

A historic neighbour: the São José da Ponta Grossa Fortress

Between Praia do Forte and Jurerê beach stands the São José da Ponta Grossa Fortress. According to Wikipedia, the design is by Brigadier José da Silva Pais, construction began in August 1740 and the fortification was listed as heritage in 1938 by the former National Historic and Artistic Heritage Service. It is worth a visit to get to know this older layer of the place's history.

How to enjoy and look after the beach

The sand strip and the shoreline vegetation are part of the landscape that draws visitors to Jurerê and deserve care. To enjoy the beach and help conserve it, avoid stepping on native vegetation and climbing the dunes, where there are any, and take back whatever you bring. Anyone who wants to do more can join beach clean-ups, such as Lixo Zero, described further below.

The company's account

Grupo Habitasul says, on its website, that it has been present since 1967 in sectors such as real estate, services and holdings in other businesses. On the Jurerê Internacional page, it lists four moments of urban planning. It is the company's own version:

• 1979 to 1980: anticipation of urban models with integrated planning, by the architect Sérgio Sclovsky.
• 2000 to 2003: urban design integrated with preserved areas, by Michel de Fournier.
• 2006 to 2009: biosphere reserve concepts in an urban setting, by Rubén Omar Pesci.
• 2017 to 2019: review of environmental and urban studies for a special urbanisation area, by André Lima and Maurício Holler.

ND Mais, in a special feature by Branded Studio ND (2022), describes the Jurerê in_2050 project, which covers 310 hectares, more than 89% of which would be preserved, with a Central Park of more than 150,000 m² and completion expected by 2035. The regional press reported that the group would open the Parque Péricles de Freitas Druck to the public on 23 March 2026, with 150,000 m², 4.5 km of trails and cycle paths, a lake and more than 1,500 native trees planted. Group volunteers organised Lixo Zero, a beach clean-up, in 2020 and on 4 June 2021.

The district today

Jurerê Internacional has hotels, Jurerê Open, the Passeio dos Namorados and a sand strip that invites strolling and caring. IBGE counted 537,211 residents in Florianópolis in 2022, against 421,240 in 2010, a rise of 27.5%. We did not find a figure for Jurerê alone.

Timeline