Itapicuru

Itapicuru lies in the Bahian river valley of the same name. A cattle route already ran through this valley around 1600, and from the late sixteenth century the estates of the Garcia d'Ávila family advanced into Indigenous lands. The landscape held Indigenous communities, colonial estates and settlements of people escaping slavery.

The town of Nossa Senhora de Nazaré de Itapicuru de Cima was established as a vila in 1728. Conflict over mission land continued into the 1820s: in 1827 the inhabitants of the Missão da Saúde complained to the imperial government about the actions of the landowner João d'Antas. The administrative seat moved from Vila Velha to the mission site in 1831, and the mission was extinguished in 1834.