Itabaiana

Itabaiana's colonial settlement developed inland from the coast of Sergipe, following the Portuguese conquest of the region in 1590. Land grants encouraged settlers along the Jacarecica River, where the early Arraial de Santo Antônio grew around a chapel at the place later known as Igreja Velha. The surviving municipal account distinguishes this first nucleus from the centre of the later town.

On 9 July 1675, Father Sebastião Pedroso de Góes sold land at Caatinga de Ayres da Rocha to the Brotherhood of the Souls of Itabaiana, on condition that a church be rebuilt there. The parish was established that October, and the settlement's centre shifted to the new church. By the late seventeenth century Itabaiana had become a vila with its own council. Its commercial role is visible by 1835, when provincial officials urged its traders to attend a new market at São Cristóvão. Religious foundations, municipal government and exchange thus marked successive stages of its growth.