Historic Centre of the Town of Diamantina In Brazil

Historic Centre of the Town of Diamantina - Brazil

Short Report

Diamantina, a colonial village as a gem in a chain of inhospitable rocky mountains, recalls the adventures of diamond prospectors in the 18th century and is testimony to the triumph of the human cultural and artistic efforts on the environment.

Wide Report

Diamantina shows how explorers of the Brazilian territory, diamond prospectors, and representatives of the Crown could European models to an American context in the 18th century, causing a culture which true to its roots still not completely original. This urban and architectural group, perfectly integrated in a rugged landscape, is a beautiful example of a spirit of adventure combined with a quest for refinement that is so typical of human nature. The town is situated in the heart of the arid, rocky mountains of Brazil opened. It is in the State of Minas Gerais, 350 kilometers of Belo Horizonte and 710 km from Brasilia, on the slope of a hill, spread over a difference of height of 1.50 m. The country of the Diamantina area consists almost exclusively of quartzite rocks and schist, This region of the mountainous and colorful aspect, but also a bad permeable soil with a rupestrine vegetation.

The morphology of the town, inspired by the model of a Portuguese medieval city has developed in accordance with the continuity of the first settlement. The 18th-century urban area is finer without that the original character. The classification of roads, avenues, alleys and squares is the result of a natural occupation of the site, in view of the demanding topography, and reflects the movement grew between the mining hamlets of the last few years.

The center of the old town has a greater density and it is located on the ground floor that slightly slimmer than the edge. The architecture of Diamantina is of Baroque inspiration like most other mining villages in Brazil. However, a number of specific characteristics which distinguish it from the traditional Portuguese colonial model. The geometry and certain data confirm that the colonizers sought must be converted to a modest scale some of the characteristics of the architecture of their own country in their adopted land, as was also the case for music and art.

The streets of the town are paved with large, flat, gray or flagstones in such a way that they a kind of paving known as capistranas, named after President João Capistrano Bandeira de Melo, which he in 1877. This picturesque paving provides a contrast between the road and the casario, A regular adaptation of 18th- and 19th-century semi-detached houses, with one or two levels. Their facades, in bright colors on a white ground, are systematically borrowed from the same typology, and they give certain relationship with the Portuguese mannerist architecture.

Most of the churches and religious buildings in Diamantina are included in regular and homogeneous complex of the casario, usually standing back only slightly from the alignment. This reveals that the spiritual power is closely linked to the population, which is distinct from, and no doubt subordinate to this, temporal power, given the very few church squares and areas reserved for social had intercourse and public events. The construction of the churches is comparable with that of civil buildings: they have the same colors and textures; the churches have only a bell tower, usually in memory of the side of the building; the pediment carved in wood.

The town has a few architectural curiosities of interest, in particular the Old Market Hall built in 1835 and recently restored, the Passadiço, a covered footbridge in the colors blue and white wood surface of the Rua da Glória Marina, for the connection between the two buildings of the Eschwege Geology Center, The muxarabi of Antônio Além Torres library, a kind of balcony completely enclosed by a wooden grille, and finally the chafariz Rua Direita, near the cathedral, a sculpted fountain which ensures that those who drinks will return to Diamantina.

Historical Data

The town Diamantina is like an oasis in the heart of the arid and rocky mountains of Brazil opened. It is in the State of Minas Gerais, 350 kilometers of Belo Horizonte and 710km from Brasilia, on the slope of a hill, spread over a difference of height of 150m. The development in the 18th century in the southern Espinhaço Chain, at a height of 1200 m, surrounded by the Al Serro restaurant dos Cristais Jequitinhonoha in the valley of the river. The country of the Diamantina area consists of almost exclusively of quartzite rocks and schist, this region are mountainous and colorful aspect, but also a poor, from entering permeable areas soil with a rupestrine vegetation. The geological formations have both the beauty of the landscape and the economic development.

One of the expeditions undertaken in 1713 from Sao Paolo to the inside of the Brazilian territory has led to the creation of one of the settlements of the Arraial do Tijuco, which would later be Diamantina. Large quantities of diamonds were found on the slopes of the mountains and along the rivers in the region. If the best deposits were concentrated in the valley of the Tijuco stream, a small tributary of the Rio Grande, the banks were chosen as the location for a small hamlet Burgalhau. However, in contrast to what has happened in other Portuguese-speaking towns on the continent, such as Ouro Preto, the growth and the consolidation of the Arraial has led to the discovery in 1720 of an unsuspected source of wealth, diamonds. In this respect, the history of Diamantina differs from that of other mining towns in Brazil.

When the Portuguese Crown discovered the existence of this source of wealth in 1731, the setting up of a new institution for the management of the area, the Demarcação Diamantina, in which the former Arraial do Tijuco and other mining hamlets in the area. In 1734, the Diamond Intendancy who moved to Tijuco, already the largest settlement in the area. The Intendancy was responsible for controlling the extraction and sale of diamonds. There was the so-called 'duration of contracts,' founded in 1739, as mining rights were granted to private monopolies. In 1771, the Crown took back the property of this resource, and responsible for the management of the mining industry to the real Extração do Diamante who continue to operate until 1845. The royal monopoly was then handled by the Regimento Diamantino, which it was argued, was staffed by more administrators than soldiers.

As it was controlled by the State, Tijuco only a vila, that is to say, a unit larger than a hamlet but smaller than a city, until 1832, ten years after the creation of Brazil. Then, had the right to a private local government. It was only in 1838, in recognition of its importance at regional level, that Tijuco was promoted to the rank of the city. In 1845, the real Extração is dissolved and the mining lease contracts signed under the supervision of the Inspetoria dos Terrenos Diamantinos were canceled in 1906 with the dissolution of the Inspetoria itself. In the meantime, the first mechanical mining companies, diamond factory workshops and silversmiths goldsmiths, and were established in the region. Unfortunately, the discovery of richer and better quality deposits in South Africa, as a result, the dramatic collapse of the mining activities in Diamantina.

At the end of the 19th century, the utopia of a textile industry in Diamantina has led to the establishment of Biri Biri, an idyllic industrial establishment built in close coordination with the very scenic countryside, approximately 12 km from the city. Created from nothing to this dream, as the spontaneous villages founded by diamond hunters at the mining sites, the Biri Biri complex played a significant role in the local economy, at least for a while. The industry will not survive but the village site has lost nothing of its atmosphere and charm. In 1914 the train line was to Diamantina, which confirms that its role as an economic center and crossroads of the region. The railway closed in 1973. As the town kampen with as little inconvenience as the decline of mining in the 19th century, the old structure is well protected and survived almost intact.

Source:whc/unesco