União dos Palmares

União dos Palmares is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Alagoas.

Its population was recorded as 65,790 in the 2020 census.

Echoes of Resistance

Located at latitude ‑9.16278 and longitude ‑36.03194, the town spreads over 428 km² of largely agricultural land devoted to sugar‑cane cultivation and cattle grazing. In the early twentieth century it functioned as a railway junction linking Alagoas and Pernambuco, and the settlement was known simply as União until a 1944 renaming highlighted its historic role.

The surrounding hills once sheltered the Quilombo dos Palmares, the largest organized community of escaped African slaves in Brazil. Under the leadership of Zumbi dos Palmares, the settlement grew to an estimated 30,000 inhabitants, including former slaves and allied Amerindians. From 1672 to 1696 the quilombo withstood repeated assaults by colonial forces, only falling after artillery‑armed troops breached its defenses.

Today the municipality serves as the gateway to two protected areas that commemorate that struggle: Parque Nacional Serra da Barriga and Parque Memorial Quilombo dos Palmares. The latter, celebrated as “A Terra da Liberdade,” opened ceremonially on 20 November 2003 in the presence of the President of Brazil, cementing the town’s identity as a site of collective memory.

• Parque Nacional Serra da Barriga
• Parque Memorial Quilombo dos Palmares