Бразилиядағы Рухшылдық орталығы – Палмелу муниципалитеті

Palmelo is municipality in southeast Goiás state, Brazil. It is the smallest municipality in the state and the only town in Brazil where most of the inhabitants follow the religion called Spiritism.

The distance to the state capital, Goiânia, is 128 km. Highway connections are made by BR 352 / Bela Vista de Goiás / Cristianópolis / BR 352 / GO 020 / Santa Cruz de Goiás. Source: Sepin

The municipality is bounded on north, south, and east by Pires do Rio and on the west by Santa Cruz de Goiás. It is crossed by the Ribeirão Caiapó and its tributaries: Ribeirão São Jerônimo and Ribeirão Monjolinho, which flow into the Corumbá River.

The city was founded on February 9, 1929, when a group of 18 people founded a Spiritist center called Luz da Verdade. These people had converted to Spiritism after seeing the alleged cure of a medium, Dorcelino Damásio da Silva, who had suffered from a disease called fogo selvagem. In 1953 Palmelo became a municipality separating from Pires do Rio. It is probably the only town in Brazil and in the world where most of the inhabitants are Spiritists.

The climate is moist tropical, with two well defined seasons: summer and winter. The summer is very rainy while the winter is very dry. The temperature varies between 16 °C and 26 °C.

In January 2005 the Mayor was Geraldo Afonso Leite. The city council had 9 members and there were 1,842 eligible voters in December 2007.

In 2007 the population density was 38.32 inhabitants/km2. In 2007 there were 2,088 people living in the urban area and 172 living in the rural area. The population has increased by about 600 people since the first census in 1980.

One of the greatest attractions is Spiritism and people from all over the country come seeking cures for their illnesses.