center of these operations. Novo Hamburgo has developed a complete infrastructure for production, marketing and trading of footwear, and now has the largest movement of containers in Brazil. The export of shoes is currently worth about two billion dollars. Shops and services Novo Hamburgo is the largest commercial area of Sinos River Valley, with more than 5,500 outlets, including major Brazilian chain stores such as Magazine Luiza, Lojas Renner, C&A, Lojas Americanas, Casas Bahia, Ponto Frio, Lojas Colombo and Delta Sul. In the shopping district there are four large supermarkets (Wal-Mart, recently sold by the parent multinational and now under different ownership), Carrefour, Bourbon (Zaffari) and Hiper Rissul. There are two malls in this city: Bourbon Shopping Novo Hamburgo and i-Fashion Outlet. Example of the service industry are cargo agents, brokers, export agents, trading companies as well as the presence of important banks. Theatre The Paschoal Charlemagne Theatre located at the Culture Department of Novo Hamburgo, has a capacity for approximately 490 people. Paranóia Productions has a school in the theatre trains local actors. The school has sent students to the biggest cities of the country to work inplays and shows. The Feevale University inaugurated on 20 September 2011 the largest theatre in the state of Rio Grande do Sul with a capacity to 1,805 spectators in Novo Hamburgo. The theatre was built in the campus II of the university. It is administered in partnership with Opus Promotions. Education The first school in Novo Hamburgo was founded in 1832, called Comunidade Evangélica Hamburgo Velho (Old Hamburg Evangelic Community). The school taught through the German language as that was the most common language at that time. The teaching material was poor and the provincial government was giving them little support. The central government at the time had no interest in investing in education and therefore would not release funds to the different provinces. In 1833 there were only two public schools, in 1866 a school for girls was founded by a group of Nuns – The Engel Sisters located in the Hamburgo Velho neighborhood. which would become a "Fundação Evangélica" (Evangelic Foundation). The creation of this school was a big step for women's education, although still largely focused on traditional values such as child rearing and home care. The first Catholic school created in the town was Santa Catarina college founded on the 10 June 1900 by the Sisters Maria Romualda