Tijuco

Tijuco, later called Diamantina, grew among the rocky mountains of Minas Gerais in the Brazilian interior. Its winding streets and houses developed around a mining settlement whose fortunes were transformed by diamonds. The town became the administrative centre of a special diamond district, where the Portuguese crown closely controlled extraction and trade.

Founded in the early eighteenth century during the search for gold, Tijuco expanded after diamonds were discovered in the region around 1720. The crown established a demarcated diamond district in 1731 and installed an intendancy at Tijuco in 1734. The intendancy supervised the workings and the sale of stones, setting the settlement apart from other mining communities. Its administrative position and the wealth of the diamond trade gave rise to churches and houses adapted to the steep terrain. Tijuco became a town in 1832, after Brazilian independence.