The Chapada Diamantina is famous for the diversity of its buildings, with many architectural complexes.

The architectural styles of the Chapada Diamantina are also marked by simplicity, integration with nature and the use of natural materials such as stone, wood and adobe.

Adobe is a brick made of earth and plant fibers mixed with water, molded and dried in the open air (without burning). 

The architectural style of Chapada Diamantina is influenced by:

1. by the local culture
2. by the climate
3. by the availability of building materials
4. for Portuguese colonization in Brazil (colonial style)

One of the main examples of local architecture in the Chapada Diamantina are the taipa houses, also known as mud houses.

These houses are built with clay mixed with straw and wood, forming thick walls that help keep the inside temperature pleasant, even during the intense summer heat.

In addition, mud houses have a rustic charm and a unique connection with the surrounding nature.

Another architectural style in the Chapada Diamantina is colonial, which dates back to the period when the region was an important diamond trade route.

The town of Igatu is nestled among rocky outcrops, historic ruins, rivers and waterfalls. The town has historic houses dating back to the 19th century, built with stones and remnants of the diamond mining era in the region.

The colonial buildings are characterized by their colourful façades, wide balconies and wooden windows. These houses are true historical relics that tell the story of the region and preserve the memory of the golden age of diamond mining.

The local architecture of the Chapada Diamantina is also marked by the presence of old churches and chapels, which are true architectural treasures.

These religious buildings have unique characteristics, such as baroque-style altars, sacred paintings and gold details;

Walking through the cobbled streets, contemplating the houses, squares and churches, takes us back to past centuries, when the region made history with the gold and diamond cycles.

Architectural highlights of the towns of Chapada Diamantina

1. Rio de Contas
2. Igatu
3. Lençóis na Bahia
4. Mucugê
5. Morro do Chapéu

1. Rio de Contas

Rio de Contas was listed by Iphan in 1980. The architectural complex of Rio de Contas brings together squares and streets that still show the old layout, with public and religious stone monuments, adobe houses and baroque churches.

The listed area includes centuries-old buildings that represent civil architecture unparalleled in all of Bahia’s hinterland.

Among the 287 buildings are the Town Hall and Jail (now the Forum), the Mother Church of the Blessed Sacrament and the Santana Church, all listed as individual assets in 1958. 

This heritage is basically made up of buildings from the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The architectural features of the buildings are the same as on the Bahian coast, with the religious and public monuments made of stone, while the civil architecture is made of adobe.

The houses have elements reminiscent of the decoration that later appeared in Paraty (RJ), and their façades were traditionally white with blue frames;

The listed area corresponds to a group of buildings that unite the previously listed monuments, which brought together the main elements of urban architecture until the 19th century: residential properties, churches and public buildings.

Expansion areas dating from after the listing are excluded.

On the outskirts of the town there are traces of dams, aqueducts, tunnels and galleries that bear witness to the great mining activity on the site;

Situated in the south of the Chapada Diamantina – on the eastern slope of the Serra das Almas, on the left bank of the Brumado river – the town is located on a gentle slope, following a reasonably regular layout.

The urban typology is simple, mononuclear, resulting in a fairly homogeneous whole. Rio de Contas is one of the rare colonial “new towns”, created by Portugal through a Royal Provision of 1745, which recommended choosing a site close to an established settlement, in a healthy location, with a regular layout and architecture capable of ensuring its beautification.

The city emerged as a gold mining centre and soon became a true Regional Capital.

Architectural monuments

1. Casa de Câmara e Cadeia em Rio de Contas
2. Igreja Matriz do Santíssimo Sacramento
3. Teatro São Carlos
4. Casa à Rua Barão de Macaúbas
5. Igreja de Santana

1. Casa de Câmara e Cadeia em Rio de Contas

The current Barão de Macaúbas Forum. It is a mid-18th or early 19th century building, a late example of a Town Hall and Jail, with two floors covered by a hipped roof and a rectangular floor plan with intercommunicating rooms.

The Jail, Jailer’s House and Audience functioned on the ground floor. Situated between two squares, it stands out for its volume and layout, and its special feature is the people’s bell, installed on the jamb of one of the windows on the second floor.

2. Igreja Matriz do Santíssimo Sacramento

Igreja Matriz do Santíssimo Sacramento was built in the second half of the 18th century to be the Mother Church of Vila Nova de Nossa Senhora do Livramento and Minas do Rio de Contas, and is considered the most important example of religious architecture in the Bahian hinterland, with a strong Baroque influence.

Designed to have side aisles surmounted by tribune galleries, however the corbelled tribunes, foundations and tie stones indicate that the building was never completed.

It has a T-shaped floor plan with a single nave with a choir, a chancel with two juxtaposed sacristies and a tower. Its volumetry is distinguished by the interplay of roof heights and surface treatment, framed by cornerstones.

Inside, the carpentry of the pelmets, choir railings, tribune and pulpit staircase, among other elements, stand out.

The ceiling of the chancel has an Italian-inspired illusionist painting.

IPHAN has carried out restoration work on its artistic assets (movable and integrated).

During the work, an unusual baroque niche was discovered, in chinoiserie, a style popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, with a strong oriental influence, from Goa (India) or Macau (China), territories occupied by the Portuguese.

3. Teatro São Carlos

The São Carlos Theatre is one of the three oldest in Brazil and the oldest in the interior of Bahia. Opened in 1892, it has been the stage for countless performances by local groups and productions from other parts of Brazil. It currently functions as a space for educational and cultural activities.

4. Casa à Rua Barão de Macaúbas

Due to its architectural features – house and shop – it is presumed to date from the mid-19th century, a common type on the eastern slopes of the Chapada Diamantina and Serra Geral during the diamond period.

The house, with its self-supporting masonry and adobe structure, is practically square in plan, with an outbuilding for services at the back.

One section of the house was used as a shop, with an independent entrance and storage rooms, while the other was used as a residence, with social and family rooms at the front and back, separated by bedrooms and alcoves along a central corridor.

The stucco and leaf-shaped bas-reliefs stand out, giving the building a certain uniqueness.

5. Igreja de Santana (ruínas)

Dating from the first half of the 18th century, it is located in the old square of the same name (now Duque de Caxias Square), set back from the neighbouring buildings and preceded by a churchyard (external space) that is connected to its nave by a wide staircase.

Made of stone masonry, it was never completed and its construction was paralysed around 1850 due to the exodus of the local population to another region of Minas Gerais.

It has three naves and a chancel that communicates with the sacristies juxtaposed to it through arches. At the back of the chancel, tall windows give it a special character.

The church’s side aisles and towers are no higher than the ground floor and it seems that they were the first to be covered by galleries.

The frontispiece has three full arched access doors, surmounted by an equal number of slit windows, and the stone masonry walls are not plastered, with the exception of the pediment and the upper section of the façade.

2. Igatu

The architectural, urban and landscape complex of Igatu – a district in the municipality of Andaraí – was listed by Iphan in 2000.

The town of Igatu is also known as Xique-Xique do Igatu and Cidade de Pedras.

The listing covers the ruins of stone dwellings located between the bridge over the Coisa Boa river and the left bank in the direction of the old mining trail.

The original foundations, dating back to the mid-19th century, are in an excellent state of preservation and the perimeter has approximately 200 buildings.

Igatu is considered a living museum of the history of diamond mining in Brazil and the Art and Memory Gallery (an open-air museum) houses utensils used by miners and slaves.

The small town lived through the heyday and decline of diamond mining, leaving the signs of its history stamped on the architecture and lifestyle of today’s residents. Next to the Piaba River, a tributary of the Paraguaçu River, it borders the Chapada Diamantina National Park.

The Coisa Boa, Pombos, Laranjeiras and Tamburis rivers pass through Igatu;

Nestled between rocky outcrops, historic ruins, rivers and waterfalls, Igatu has a historic 19th century house, built with stones and remnants of the diamond mining era in the region.

Because of this, the district is known as the “Machu Picchu Baiana”, a reference to the historic Peruvian city of stone.

In addition to the architecture of its layout and assets with individual value, the listing highlighted the historic ruins around the urban centre built by the prospectors who worked in the area.

Using Indian trails, slave labour and building new paths, the prospectors almost completely overturned the Serra do Sincorá, transforming the region into one of the richest places in the world.

The burrows and ranches of the early days began to coexist with large colonial mansions, which housed the diamond barons during their period of splendour;

In the past – prosperous and populous – it had more than ten thousand inhabitants. However, with the decline of diamond activity in the region, it fell into decay and most of the population left in search of better living conditions.

The town of Igatu was left empty, with abandoned houses and businesses.

Despite the difficulties, some people resisted and remained in the area. Gradually, Igatu began to develop again and stand out in the Chapada Diamantina;

Today, it attracts visitors from all over the world and tourism is its main economic activity. It is home to around 380 inhabitants, most of whom are the children of diamond miners.

The town is ideal for historical and cultural tourism, as well as nature and adventure tourism, and is also known for being the birthplace of the writer Herberto Sales, who immortalised Colonel Aureliano Gondim in his novel Cascalho.

As was the case throughout the Northeast, colonelism influenced the life and customs of the town’s society.

Architectural monuments

1. Stone houses in Igatu
2. São Sebastião Church and Cemetery

1. Stone houses in Igatu

2. São Sebastião Church and Cemetery

3. Lençóis na Bahia

The architectural and landscape ensemble of Lençóis in the Chapada Diamantina was listed by IPHAN in 1973.

The town is located in the centre-west of Bahia, in a natural amphitheatre on the eastern slope of the Serra do Sincorá.

The complex is very rich and interesting, having preserved many of its original features, as well as being situated in a region of mountains, in the area of the Chapada Diamantina National Park, famous for its stunning natural beauty.

There are 570 properties in the heritage protection area.

Lençóis’ cultural heritage depicts the economic heyday of the towns and cities of the Chapada in the 19th century.

Between 1845 and 1871, it was the world’s largest producer of diamonds and the third most important city in Bahia, becoming a trading post for the export of mineral products to Europe and the import of luxury goods, to the point where a French vice-consulate was installed in the city to facilitate trade with that country.

At a time of rapid development, the first townhouses and more elaborate buildings appeared in the city.

Its architectural collection is basically made up of houses and sobrados from the second half of the 19th century, built using different techniques, including the predominant use of adobe or stone, and independent wooden structures with rammed earth seals.

These houses are characterised by the bright colours of their masonry and window frames.

Civil architecture is more important than religious architecture, and there is not just one dominant monument in the listed complex.

This ensemble corresponds to the entire urban area of the town, due to the topography and the lack of planning in the typical occupation of the mining centres of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The town was formed from two centres: Serrano and São Félix, places where diamond mining began simultaneously and were then combined into a single urban area.

The centre of Serrano was located at a high point, on the bank of a river rapids, moving as the settlement consolidated towards the current Praça Horácio de Matos, with its gentler topography, to meet the other centre, on the opposite bank of the river.

The colonial layout emerged from the centres built around the Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição and the bridge connecting the settlements on both sides of the river.

The construction of the bridge in 1860 took up the idle labour of the victims of the great drought that hit the sertão between 1859 and 1862.

From this time onwards, the large townhouses that make up the old Market Square – now Praça Horácio de Matos – were built, and there are five listed houses.

One of these sobrados served as the Council House, but was demolished in the 1940s to build the Post and Telegraph Office.

Like all mining settlements, Lençóis developed in a disorganised way: the urban typology is made up of an irregular grid of streets that adapt to the terrain, interspersed with small squares and plazas.

Some of the streets are paved with the rock that outcrops there.

The new streets – spontaneous or from the expansion area approved by IPHAN – go up and down slopes, imitating the layout of the colonial streets, while others are paved with irregular stones that form decorative designs.

Architectural monuments

1. Praça Horácio de Matos
2. Mercado Público Municipal
3. Ponte sobre o rio Lençóis
4. Prefeitura Municipal
5. Teatro de Arena
6. Igreja Nossa Senhora do Rosário
7. Igreja de Nosso Senhor dos Passos
8. Casa de Cultura Afrânio Peixoto
9. Arquivo Público

1. Praça Horácio de Matos

2. Mercado Público Municipal

3. Ponte sobre o rio Lençóis

4. Prefeitura Municipal, imóvel onde funciona o Escritório Técnico do Iphan

5. Teatro de Arena

6. Igreja Nossa Senhora do Rosário

7. Igreja de Nosso Senhor dos Passos

8. Casa de Cultura Afrânio Peixoto

9. Arquivo Público

4. Mucugê

The architectural and landscape complex, especially the cemetery in the town of Mucugê, was listed by IPHAN in 1980.

Mucugê is one of the oldest towns in the Chapada Diamantina and stood out as one of the main gold and diamond mining centres in the region, just like Lençóis.

Its heritage is made up of single-storey houses and townhouses dating from the second half of the 19th century, as well as two churches.

Located in a wide, flat valley, although surrounded by very steep slopes to fit in with the valley, the town developed in an “L” shape, at the ends of which are the two local churches.

One of the legs of the “L” is Rua Direita do Comércio, which runs parallel to the Mucugê stream and must have been the initial centre of the settlement. At the convergence of the axes, there is a small square. Its typology is simple, i.e. mononuclear.

It still has Portuguese-style colonial houses (dating from the second half of the 19th century) and the listed site corresponds to the entire urban area of the town, including the cemetery located on the hillside, which is dissociated from the original urban centre.

As the urban area expanded, there was a strip of flat land sandwiched between the original centre, the stone fences and the escarpment where the cemetery is located.

New residences and public service buildings were built on these areas that could not be installed in the colonial buildings.

In the town – founded at the end of the 18th century – most of the colonial houses were built in adobe or stone.

With its colonial architecture completely preserved, the town has very clean streets and its gardens and flowerbeds are a real eye-catcher.

The town’s architectural heritage is made up of 300 single-storey houses and 10 sobrados, and most of the buildings are exclusively for residential use.

As well as places of rare beauty in the municipality, such as waterfalls, landscapes, valleys and canyons, the cultural heritage is enriched by the stories of the struggles for possession of the gold mines, against the invasion of the Prestes Column and the colonels – remembered for their power and wealth.

One of the natural attractions is Alto do Capa Bode, considered a place of contemplation.

Architectural monuments

1. Santa Isabel Cemetery
2. Mother Church of Santa Isabel

1. Santa Isabel Cemetery

Entre o núcleo histórico e a encosta encontra-se o Cemitério de Santa Isabel (também chamado “cemitério bizantino”) que tem área plana e murada, e a área especial onde está um conjunto de mausoléus, em cujas fachadas se reproduzem miniaturas de fachadas de igrejas e capelas – apoiadas na encosta rochosa da serra – se distinguem por sua cor branca.

O arranjo paisagístico integra os mausoléus à rocha em decomposição.

Construído no século XIX, tem em destaque a silhueta das sepulturas brancas diante do fundo montanhoso. Implantado na encosta rochosa da Serra do Sincorá, a noroeste de Mucugê, começou a ser construído em 1854, pela Câmara Municipal.

A obra foi concluída em 1886, quando uma epidemia assolou a vila.

A escolha deste sítio deveu-se, provavelmente, à existência de terrenos planos fáceis de escavar e próximos da cidade.

O cemitério está dividido em duas partes: uma plana, murada, situada sobre os terrenos de aluvião do vale onde estão as covas rasas e a outra, constituída por um conjunto de mausoléus implantado sobre a encosta rochosa da serra.

Os túmulos caiados são vistos à distância e se integram de forma notável à paisagem do cerrado.

Os mausoléus brotam da rocha nua, como a vegetação, em uma integração similar às “locas” ou “tocas”, habitação dos garimpeiros que se instalavam na região.

A distinção é promovida pela cor dos mausoléus – construídos em pedra e/ou tijolos, revestidos de reboco e caiados – e muitos terminam em arcos ornamentais, coroados e outros tantos são miniaturas de igrejas e capelas.

2. Mother Church of Santa Isabel

Igreja Matriz de Santa Isabel – Erguida em meados do século XIX, pelo frei Caetano de Troyria, com grande auxílio da população, em um terreno doado pelo coronel Reginaldo Landulpho.

Totalmente restaurada pelo Iphan, em 2014, com obras de conservação da edificação, além da restauração dos bens móveis e integrados ao monumento (acervo de imagens sacras).

O templo estava deteriorado pelas condições climáticas e desgaste natural dos materiais, o que comprometeu as atividades religiosas.

Apresenta uma fachada neoclássica, com três naves internas e um coro em formato de U, estruturados por uma alvenaria em pedra e pilares internos.

Em 1952, foram realizadas algumas obras, inclusive a substituição do piso de pedra pelo piso de ladrilho e, em 1978, houve a recuperação do telhado.

5. Morro do Chapéu

The town of Morro do Chapéu has a rich natural heritage, with waterfalls, and also historical and cultural heritage, as it is home to archaeological sites and caves.

On the outskirts of the town is Vila do Ventura, the largest diamond centre in the region at the beginning of the 20th century.

Architectural monuments

1. Igreja Matriz Nossa Senhora da Graça
2. Grassi family mansion
3. Vila do Ventura

1. Igreja Matriz Nossa Senhora da Graça

Em 1794, a fazenda Morro Velho recebeu a visita do missionário Capuchinho Frei Clemente de Adorno, que durante sua viagem, rezou ali uma missa, construiu um pequeno cemitério e foi embora, deixando os moradores locais entusiasmados para que construíssem uma capela.

Em 1800, os próprios moradores dão início às obras daquela que se tornaria a Igreja Matriz da cidade. Esta Igreja foi uma das mais belas da região, não só pela fachada, mas pelos trabalhos artísticos na parte interna.

2. Grassi family mansion

No inicio do século XX, a família italiana Grassi vivia neste casarão. O pai da família chamava-se Giuseppe, mas era chamado de “Giuseppino”.

Como a família era dona de boa parte das terras no entorno da Vila, daí veio o nome de “Toca do Pepino”, uma toca muito conhecida atualmente,  que abriga diversas pinturas rupestres.

3. Vila do Ventura

Por volta de 1840, garimpeiros foragidos de Lençóis se abrigaram próximo à atual fazenda Várzea da Cobra.

Um desses garimpeiros chamava-se Ventura. Em pouco tempo, descobriram diamante e carbonato na região e instalaram um pequeno garimpo ali.

Passaram, então, a vender as pedras em Lençóis, tendo sido o garimpeiro Ventura, o responsável pela venda dos primeiros diamantes.

O nome “Ventura” tornou-se referência e o local começou a atrair muitos outros garimpeiros, que começaram a povoar as terras em torno da área.

Logo, a pequena vila entra em decadência em razão da Guerra do Paraguai, pois quase todos os homens foram recrutados para as batalhas.

Após a guerra, a vila volta a crescer, atraindo aproximadamente 12 mil residentes, e atinge seu apogeu, com forte comércio, escolas, correios e capelas.

A Vila entra em decadência novamente, após a retração do mercado de carbonato mundial. Atualmente, só três famílias moram no distrito que guarda ruínas e casarões, em suas ruas de pedras. 

Possui ruínas do período áureo da mineração, quando foi o maior produtor de diamantes da região.

Foi o maior centro produtor de diamante da região, possuindo, na década de 1920, cerca de 4.000 habitantes e, inclusive, um teatro e filarmônica. Com a seca de 1932 e alterações no mercado de carbonato, o garimpo entrou em declínio.

Bahia.ws é o maior guia de turismo e viagem da Bahia e Salvador