Itá-byra

Itabira belongs to the upland interior of southeastern Brazil, where indigenous landscapes were gradually drawn into Portuguese colonial expansion. Before mining districts developed, local peoples cultivated crops, hunted, gathered forest products, and maintained routes through the hills. Colonial expeditions entered the interior in search of wealth and labor, disrupting existing communities and extending connections with settlements nearer the coast. The terrain made transport demanding, and pack animals became important to the movement of supplies.

Prospectors Francisco and Salvador Faria de Albernaz found gold in streams near the future settlement in 1720. News of the find drew further settlers during the eighteenth century. Colonial occupation sometimes extended into Indigenous lands, producing conflict and deaths. The mining settlement belonged to a wider Minas Gerais economy dependent on supplies and transport across the uplands.