Cognomen received by the most important city of the province. Pelotas has grown and developed as any other, exerting great economic, cultural and political influence across the Rio Grande do Sul. To tell the history of Pelotas we must speak of Charqueadas, where everything began in 1780, when Jose Pinto Martins founded on the banks of Arroio Pelotas the first Charqueada, starting the Parish of San Francisco de Paula, later Vila, which in 1835 amounted to the city of Pelotas.
   At that time, the ruling classes were formed of farmers (creators and “invernadores”), charqueadores and traders. Farmers and traders existed throughout the province, but only in Pelotas were the charqueadores. The pelotenses “charqueadores”, holders of political and economic power, under the wealth obtained through the exploitation and export of “charque”, created an impressive aristocratic architecture, consistent with their aspirations to nobility, and for this, they did not measure efforts. They brought famous architects of Europe to build their palaces, forming a single architectural and monumental, ecletic style. They wanted the prosperity of the place and the place prospered. Walking today through the streets of this city makes us see this past with the same eyes of those who lived here or passed through here.
   In Pelotas inhabited nine Barons, two Viscounts and a Count, which collaborated to name their society as the aristocracy of Charque, or as Barons of Beef Drought.
   The Beautiful Princess of the South, birthplace of privileged, provided the care in its route, until their minimum architectural details, richly worked on a European style. Its glamour was such that received this cognomen. Its people was responsible for its development and consequent cultural growth, leaving us, until today, a heritage in which its history portrays itself.