Itapeva

Itapeva da Faxina grew in the southwestern São Paulo country crossed by routes linking the plateau with the southern cattle lands. During the eighteenth century, livestock and mule traffic gave rise to stopping places where travellers could rest and obtain supplies. Faxina stood near the junction with a route from Apiaí, linking these journeys with the mining districts.

The colonial government's effort to establish a formal town did not simply recognise the existing stopping place. A new Faxina was laid out elsewhere under Antônio Furquim Xavier Pedroso. On 20 September 1769 its foundation was recorded and a pelourinho, the pillar marking municipal jurisdiction, erected. The older settlement's inhabitants largely stayed away from the ceremony. After repeated demands for unfinished public buildings, the government transferred the town's seat and pillar to the established paragem in 1785. The history of Itapeva thus joined a commercial roadside settlement to the crown's attempt to gather scattered inhabitants under municipal authority.