Piawa'y

Piumhi lies near the headwaters of the São Francisco in western Minas Gerais, surrounded by hills and open country. In 1731 João Batista Maciel led an expedition from Pitangui in search of gold and returned with news of mineral discoveries in the Piumhi backlands. Prospectors and settlers followed, and a parish was established in the eighteenth century as a community took shape in the region.