Itá-îybá

Itá-îybá's southeastern Brazilian setting became connected with the mining settlements of southern Minas Gerais. The history of the later town of Itajubá began around the workings of Nossa Senhora da Soledade do Itagybá, at the place now called Delfim Moreira. The search for precious stones and gold drew settlers into this mountain country and produced the older settlement from which the new community developed.

In 1819 the population centre shifted into the Sapucaí valley. The new settlement's traditional founding date is 19 March, and its first church was built that year. A second church followed in 1832, showing the consolidation of the new religious and residential centre before municipal independence came much later. The early nineteenth-century town therefore grew through a movement between two distinct sites. Mining provided the older regional connection, while the new parish centre established a lasting settlement in the valley.