Mba'epina'y

Baependi lies in the highlands of Minas Gerais, where the Serra da Mantiqueira rises above the upper Grande River valley. Mountains, forests, streams and waterfalls define the district, while the town stands at about 893 metres on the left bank of the Baependi River. The Tupi origin of the name is debated, but one explanation uses mbaé-pindi, meaning an open clearing in riparian forest.

Puris were among the region’s first inhabitants. Paulista expeditions entered the area from the Paraíba do Sul valley in the early seventeenth century, and André de Leão’s 1601 expedition is associated with reaching Pouso Alto and Baependi. Gold discoveries later drew settlers into Minas Gerais, and trails through the Mantiqueira linked the mining districts with Paraty and the Atlantic coast.

A parish was raised at Maependi in 1752. When the old chapel became too small, Maria Nogueira do Prado donated land for a new church in 1754; the church opened between 1755 and 1756, and the settlement grew around it. Tobacco, cattle and food crops supported the parish alongside the Estrada Real. The town’s shape therefore joined Indigenous clearings, colonial roads and a religious centre in one mountain valley.