Flash and Maria Julitta Schwark, who were invited to come to the Hamburg Berg region (which would later become Hamburgo Velho) by several families – Czermak, Carlos Klein, José Kroeff, João Altmeyer, Zimmer and Plentz. The Jesuit priests arrived in the Sinos River Valley region in the mid-nineteenth century and took over the Church Nossa Senhora da Piedade in Hamburgo Velho. In 1914, the Priest Benedict Meienhofer organized the opening of a Catholic school for boys, which was called St. Jacob's college. In 1927, the year when Novo Hamburgo was emancipated, there were seven state schools in the city, with a total of 374 students, one state school with 72 students and six private schools with 478 students. In 1930 there were eight state schools, six city run schools and eight private schools, with the student population rising to 1,477. The Vargas Era (1930–1945) represented a significant advance in Brazilian education. This educational revolution also had an impact in Novo Hamburgo. In 1943, the city schools had grown to a total of 35, with a total of 3668 students. The main educational institutions in Novo Hamburgo today are: Ceducs Centro de Educação Superior Colégio Marista Pio XII Colégio Santa Catarina Faculdade IENH — Instituição Evangélica do Novo Hamburgo Ftec Faculdades Fundação Escola Técnica Liberato Salzano V da Cunha Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul Universidade Feevale Tourism Novo Hamburgo is one of 13 charming cities on the Rota Romântica, a scenic bypass of Brazilian cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul with heavy Germanic influence. Other cities on the Rota Romântica are São Leopoldo, Estância Velha, Ivoti, Dois Irmãos, Morro Reuter, Santa Maria do Herval, Presidente Lucena, Picada Café, Nova Petrópolis, Gramado, Canela and São Francisco de Paula. In the historical centre which is located in the Hamburgo Velho neighbourhood, there are still some half-timbered buildings constructed in the same technique, as the Community Schmitt-Presser Museum (first exemplary technique protected by IPHAN in Brazil). There are also the works of the German architect Ernst Seubert, some of his known buildings are the Church of Reis Magos (IECLB), the Church of Our Lady of Mercy, Bakery Reiss ("Padaria Reiss"), Schmitt House ("Casa Rosa") and Municipal Public Library Machado De Assis. Also noteworthy is the neoclassical building of the Ernesto Frederico Scheffel Foundation. There is a "historic-cultural street" called Rua General Osório, along which there are dozens of historic