Apya'y

Apiaí lies in the wooded hills of southern São Paulo, near the headwaters of rivers that descend toward the Ribeira valley. Its name is Indigenous, but the colonial settlement developed around gold found in the surrounding hills. The Morro do Ouro became an important focus of mining and settlement, drawing inhabitants from other parts of the captaincy.

During the eighteenth century prospectors established several small settlements in the district. Santo Antônio das Minas de Apiaí was raised to a town in 1771. Mining brought people and enslaved labourers to the area, while many households also cultivated food for their own use. As the workings declined, subsistence agriculture remained an important part of local life in the surrounding forested uplands and valleys.