Itapetininga

Itapetininga grew along the routes used by muleteers crossing the interior of São Paulo. A stopping place developed in the early eighteenth century, offering pasture and resting ground within a day's journey of Sorocaba. Around 1760, Domingos José Vieira led a group from the first settlement near the river to higher ground between two streams. Rivalry between these two nuclei accompanied plans to establish a formal town.

Simão Barbosa Franco was appointed to organise and administer the new settlement. In 1770 it became the vila of Nossa Senhora dos Prazeres de Itapetininga; the local commemorative date is 5 November, associated with a solemn Mass and the erection of the pillory symbolising Portuguese authority. Municipal and parish institutions followed as the settlement developed. By 1830, the ground floor of the building later used as the municipal headquarters had been constructed to house the public jail.