The settlement of the Chapada Diamantina is closely linked to the exploitation of natural resources and the economic transformations that have shaped the region over the centuries.

Its history can be divided into three distinct periods: The gold era, which began at the end of the 17th century with the arrival of the first bandeirantes and the founding of mining settlements; the diamond era, from the 18th century onwards, which attracted adventurers and traders and led to the growth of towns such as Lençóis and Mucugê; and, finally, the Post-Diamond Period, marked by the decline of mining and the adaptation of the local economy to agriculture, tourism and environmental conservation.

These historical cycles have left a cultural, architectural and environmental legacy that makes the Chapada Diamantina one of the most fascinating regions in Brazil.

As belezas da Chapada Diamantina - Guia Turístico

The settlement of the Chapada Diamantina and its three historical periods

The Chapada Diamantina has had three different periods in its history:

1. Aurifera
2. Diamond Plateau
3. Tourist Chapada

1. The Gold Coast

The penetration of the backlands of Bahia was recommended by King D. João III to Tomé de Sousa, the first Governor-General of Brazil.

The Regiment that came into force in 1549 contained, among other things, categorical orders for Tomé de Sousa to discover, dominate and populate the areas of the interior that had been left to the feral gentiles. So Bahia declared war on the Indians and set out to conquer the interior.

The bandeirante epic that was now inaugurated became the movement that would extend our western frontiers far beyond what was known.

Sailing the rivers and travelling on foot through the hinterlands farthest from the sea coast, countless adventurers set out into the unknown in search of land and riches, whether in the form of human merchandise – indigenous people to enslave – or in the form of metals and precious stones – especially gold, silver and emeralds.

Those who sought to reach the geographical heart of the Captaincy of Bahia found a stunning landscape dominated by craggy mountains, deep gorges, swollen rivers and large plateaus.

It was the Serra do Espinhaço, which penetrated the central part of Bahia and extended its mountains to peaks of about 2000 metres.

The whole area would later be called Chapada Diamantina.

Although the bandeiras of Gabriel Soares de Sousa and Belchior Dias Moreira are considered pioneers in opening roads to settle the interior of Bahia, at the end of the 16th century, the Chapada Diamantina remained uninhabited until the middle of the 17th century, although it was surrounded by population centres linked to the raising of cattle.

The decisive factor in the occupation of its northern and north-eastern edges was the struggle to expel the Dutch, fought in the backlands of Bahia in the form of guerrilla warfare.

After the defeat of the Maracá Indians and the distribution of the sesmarias, the area around the Chapada was occupied by cattle ranches, among which the Morgado, Guedes, Brito and Casa da Ponte ranches stand out.

It wasn’t until the beginning of the 18th century that the process of settlement in the Chapada gained momentum with the discovery of gold, which had been sought by Tomé de Sousa’s regiment. The Chapada went from being a giant stone obstacle to be avoided, to becoming an important centre of convergence for the migratory movements of the time.

The first discoveries were made in the North of Chapada Diamantina, in the region of the present city of Jacobina, but the Portuguese Crown ordered a ban on mining to avoid emptying the Minas Gerais mines.

However, with clandestine mining, the Crown eventually reversed its decision and in 1720 decreed the free exploitation of gold, but demanded the payment of the quinto.

Almost simultaneously, gold was discovered in the south of the Chapada Diamantina, in the alluvial fans of the Contas Pequeno (now the Brumado River ).

The first settlement was built on the site of the present town of Rio de Contas.

The two fronts of exploration – Jacobina and Rio de Contas – allowed the conquest of the hinterland in search of gold, resulting in the settlement of villages and the creation of overland communication routes along the western edge of the Chapada.

The gold rush was so great that in 1726 the Overseas Council ordered the construction of a foundry in each of the two towns.

In 1747 and 1748, despite rampant smuggling, there was a production of plates, much of which was used to decorate the many churches built in Salvador during the 18th century.

In their heyday, Jacobina and Rio de Contas rivalled the cities of the Recôncavo Açucareiro in pomp and refinement.

Today, Rio de Contas has more than 300 buildings listed by the National Historic Heritage.

But before a century of splendour had passed, the gold region of the Chapada Diamantina went into decline.

The alluvial gold became scarce, as did the fifth collection; the crisis came, and in the early years of the 19th century the activity was already being practised by a few prospectors.

The region began to lose its population and Rio de Contas was only able to cope with the new reality thanks to the skill of its metalworkers.

In 1818, the travellers Spix and Martius crossed the south of the Chapada Diamantina and found that the region was inhabited only by a few farmers, cattle breeders and hunters.

According to the vicar of the local diocese, which stretched from Rio de Contas to Jacobina, covering the entire eastern part of the Chapada Diamantina, the region had only 9,000 inhabitants.

In the first half of the 19th century, however, the Chapada Diamantina was reborn from the ashes.

The discovery of large diamond deposits in the Mucugê riverbed triggered a new rush into the region, now on its eastern edge, where the Chapada Diamantina National Park is located today, and thus began the most prosperous and richest phase of its history – the origin of its present name.

2. Chapada Diamantífera

The rush for diamonds did not take place until the mid-19th century, although there is evidence that mines were discovered as early as the second quarter of the 18th century, near Jacobina, in a region adjacent to the Chapada Diamantina.

It’s possible that the existence of diamonds at the headwaters of the Contas River, where gold was mined, had been known since the 18th century, But the first discovery of diamonds in the Chapada Diamantina took place in 1817 and 1818, in the Serra do Gagau, parallel to the Serra do Sincorá.

It was only with the end of the Portuguese Crown’s monopoly on diamond mining in 1832 that diamond mining began in Bahia.

Between 1838 and 1842, several discoveries were made in the municipality of Gentio do Ouro, in Santo Inácio, Morro do Chapéu and Chapada Velha (now the parish of Brotas de Macaúbas).

The Serra do Sincorá deposits were discovered in 1844 in the region of Mucugê by José Pereira do Prado, a muleteer from the town of Piatã.

This discovery and others that followed brought large numbers of people from the north and south of Chapada, Recôncavo Baiano and Minas Gerais to the region.

Within months of the discovery, the local population had reached 25,000.

Between 1844 and 1848, the region welcomed around 50,000 people.

In 1845, the São José and Lençóis rivers were discovered, and the city of the same name was founded on the banks of the latter.

Due to the wealth of these mines, Lençóis rose from being a district of the parish of Santa Izabel do Paraguaçu (now Mucugê) in 1852 to a town in 1864. In 1857 it became the seat of the Repartição dos Terrenos Diamantinos (which looked after tax interests) and the commercial centre of the region then called Lavras Diamantinas.

Products from the São Francisco, Contas and Utinga rivers, as well as from the towns of Campestre (now Seabra) and Palmeiras, converged in the region, especially to Lençóis, where different concentrations of Garimpos were formed, such as Marco, Capivaras, Bicas, Rabudo, Roncador, Barro Branco and many others.

Referring to the importance of the Lavras Diamantinas in the context of Bahia in 1857, the then President of the Province, Cansansão do Sinimbu, stated that the discovery of the deposits in the Serra do Sincorá “changed the condition of a large part of the population in the interior”.

As mineral extraction was a simple job that didn’t require technical qualifications, it guaranteed “employment and a profitable occupation” for many people.

Local society was made up of merchants and large diamond dealers, landowners and garimpos, small traders and diamond buyers, artisans and employees, and the great mass of the garimpeiro population.

The garimpeiro population consisted mainly of unskilled and marginalised workers. In general, people were driven to dig for gold because of its promise of quick wealth and social advancement.

The very origin of the garimpeiro in Brazil testifies to this fact.

The first garimpeiro populations appeared in the middle of the 18th century, after the discovery of diamond deposits in Arraial do Tijuco (now Diamantina), in Minas Gerais in 1729, and consisted of mestizos, freed blacks, individuals without economic resources or slaves who were not absorbed by the small local labour market.

They exploited diamonds clandestinely, since the Portuguese Crown ordered the eviction of all miners from the diamond mines as early as 1731, in order to demarcate them and redistribute the mine plots to wealthy individuals.

Later, in 1771, diamond mining was completely banned and became a monopoly of the Crown.

The history of the mining population in Serra do Sincorá is no exception.

The garimpeiros lived in conditions of extreme poverty in their region of origin: without land, without financial resources, excluded from the labour market.

Even in the Serra do Sincorá, the garimpeiros did not rise above poverty and social exclusion.

The few who made it didn’t know how to preserve the wealth they had acquired.

The first period of prosperity lasted only 25 years.

In the 1860s and 1870s, the exploitation of the South African mines caused the price of diamonds to plummet, leading to a decline in local trade. During these years, the Lençóis Garimpos were virtually abandoned.

Analysing the role of the region in a broader context, it can be seen that diamonds played an important role in the provincial economy in the 1850s.

Between 1850 and 1878, diamonds were one of Bahia’s top five export products in virtually every year.

In 1855 and 1856 it even accounted for 15.2 per cent of the province’s exports. Nevertheless, diamonds did not shift the axis of economic hegemony from Recôncavo Baiano to the interior.

Sugar was the main product of the province, although its production was in full decline.

In the national context, diamond mining in Bahia did not repeat the mining cycle in Minas Gerais.

In the 18th century, diamonds and gold were the main export products of colonial Brazil, but in the 19th century, the role of gold was reduced, the role of coffee, which accounted for about 50 per cent of the value of exports between 1850 and 1886.

During the same period, diamonds accounted for less than 4% of national exports in virtually every year.

A new diamond cycle began in 1883 when carbonado, a black diamond used in rock drilling, which was then an exclusive product of the region, became valuable.

Production began to decline in the 1900s, but low production and high demand kept prices rising until the First World War. From then on, new industrial products replaced carbonate and mining declined again in the region.

By 1917, its inhabitants were already in an exodus “to the interior, to the State of São Paulo, to the dam works on the Paraguaçu River and to the State of Paraná, where diamond mines were discovered on the Tibagi River“.

Nevertheless, diamonds remained the main product of the region until the early decades of the 20th century.

In 1920, there were 1,651 garimpeiros in Lençóis, representing 21% of the town’s population(7,789 inhabitants) and 45.5% of its workforce.

Herberto Sales, in his novels Cascalho and Além dos Marimbus, offers a socio-economic and landscape portrait of the Andaraí region around the 1930s.

The land, divided into large estates, was cleared for pasture. But the diamond trade was still the mainstay of the regional economy, and mining continued to attract much of the workforce.

In Lençóis, in the Chapada Diamantina, there was a large concentration of garimpeiros in the Bororó and Pulgas garimpos, for example between 1935 and 1938, whose production attracted a large number of young people.

Of the 3,747 garimpeiros registered there in those years, about 67 per cent were aged between 15 and 29.

Over the years, manual mining collapsed.

The decline was inevitable, given the lack of alternative economic activities, and families began to emigrate.

Of the 22,230 inhabitants of the municipality of Lençóis in 1900, 5,640 remained in 1980.

In the 1980s, when the Chapada Diamantina National Park was created, manual mining was practically extinct.

In the municipality of Lençóis, for example, there were no more than 50 men working, all over 40 years old.

These prospectors were then mere “sparklers”, moving from one area to another, digging up old mines near the town and along the right bank of the São José River.

There were no more garimpeiros working in the more inland mountains, which were difficult to mine.

The extremely low production discouraged the interest of the wealthier, and young people no longer saw mining as a way of life.

Farming, fishing, hunting and animal husbandry were then the activities that sustained the garimpeiros, much more than mining itself.

Mechanised diamond mining was never successful in the region.

In 1926, the Companhia Brasileira de Exploração Diamantina was founded to exploit the Paraguaçu alluvial deposits in Andaraí, but the company did not prosper due to low production from the deposits.

In the 1980s, the most favourable area for diamond exploration was the São José and Santo Antônio rivers.

In the 1970s, the PARADISA (Parque de Desenvolvimento e Saneamento do Interior da Bahia) was created with the aim of revitalising the town of Lençóis and its surroundings.

However, Lençóis still retains its mining roots, and in 1980 about 47 per cent of the families living in Lençóis had an income equal to or less than a minimum wage or no income at all.

3. Tourist Chapada

Tourism has been an emerging activity in the Region since the 1980s. However, the first step was taken in 1973, when the city of Lençóis was declared a National Historical Monument by the IPHAN (National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage).

In 1980, the cities of Mucugê and Rio de Contas were also listed.

Later, the creation of the Chapada Diamantina National Park gave new impetus to the promotion of the region’s beauty.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the region still lacked adequate infrastructure to receive an intensive and constant flow of visitors.

In addition, there was little publicity about its architectural and scenic beauties or its historical importance at a national level. The structuring of tourism has been slow.

Nevertheless, its transformative effects were already noticeable, with the construction of new houses and hotels in the town.

In the 1990s, the Lençóis Airport was built, with the capacity to land and take off large commercial jets. Today the city has regular flights to Salvador.

Good hotels, inns and restaurants have also been built, especially in the town of Lençóis, which is considered the main gateway to the Chapada and the Chapada Diamantina National Park.

See also the Chapada Diamantina Tourist Guide.

It was also during this period that the region became known nationally and internationally.

Many tourists from Southeast Brazil and abroad came to the Chapada Diamantina through tourist packages bought in their places of origin.

Reports about the region in tourist magazines, newspapers and television have become frequent.

The Guia Quatro Rodas in 2006 included the Chapada Diamantina in its Brazil Not to Be Missed itineraries.

The region has many attractions.

As well as the colonial houses of the main towns(Lençóis, Mucugê, Andaraí and Palmeiras), there are various excursions into the interior of the mountains, including waterfalls, natural pools, rock faces, breathtaking scenery, rapids, caves and places of historical interest.

Some tourist attractions are located inside the Chapada Diamantina National Park, while others are in its proximity.

The main bases for accessing the attractions to the north and south of the park are the towns of Lençóis – which has a good hotel and restaurant infrastructure – and Mucugê, which is smaller but still has four good inns, other smaller ones and a few restaurants.

Geography, climate and landscape of Chapada Diamantina

Location and size

The Chapada Diamantina is located in the centre of the state of Bahia and covers an area of 50,610 km², extending in a “Y” shape from north to south.

Climate and Weather

The climate of the Chapada is determined by its relief and differs from that of its surroundings, which are typically arid. The region has a semi-humid tropical climate, with average annual temperatures between 20°C and 24°C.

The Chapada Mountains act as a natural barrier to the clouds that come from the sea towards the interior, causing frequent rainfall, with an annual average of over 1000 mm. In Lençóis, this figure reaches 1,400 mm.

The wettest months are from November to March, and the driest from July to October. However, prolonged veranicos during the rainy season and continuous rainfall during the colder months are common.

Relief and geological formations

Amidst the depressions and plains of the Bahian interior, the mountains, plateaus and uplands of the Serra do Espinhaço stand out like a veritable oasis. This mountain range extends as far south as Minas Gerais.

There are two main mountain systems in Bahia, both with a north-south orientation: the Serra da Borda Ocidental and the Serra da Borda Oriental.

Mountains of the Western Edge

The Western Edge Mountains are home to the highest points in Bahia, such as Pico do Barbado (2,030 metres), Pico do Itobira (1,970 metres) and Pico das Almas (1,850 metres).

This region was an important gold mining centre in the 18th century and includes historic towns such as Rio de Contas, Livramento de Nossa Senhora, Piatã and Ibitiara. Because of its importance, this area is known as the “Gold Circuit”.

It is also home to the Serra do Barbado Environmental Protection Area (APA), created in 1993 and covering an area of 63,652 hectares.

Mountains of the Eastern Edge

The Serra do Sincorá, on the Eastern Edge, is about 100km long, with altitudes ranging from 1,600m in the west to less than 400m in the east, in the Marimbus region. This mountain range is home to the Chapada Diamantina National Park and towns such as Lençóis, Andaraí and Mucugê.

Between Andaraí and Mucugê you’ll find the ruins of Xique-Xique de Igatu, an old prospector’s village that played an important role in diamond mining in the 19th century. Today, this region is known as the “Diamond Circuit”.

Landscapes and Natural Attractions

The geology of the Chapada Diamantina has created iconic rugged peaks such as Morros do Camelo, Pai Inácio and Morrão. These form the region’s most famous landscape, located in the north of the Chapada, with Morrão within the boundaries of the National Park.

River erosion has carved deep gorges from which impressive waterfalls cascade. One of the most famous examples is the 340-metre-high Cachoeira da Fumaça, near the village of Caeté-Açu (Capão), in the municipality of Palmeiras.

Caves and caverns

In addition to the mountains and waterfalls, Chapada Diamantina is home to countless caves and caverns, the result of millions of years of erosion. Among the most famous are Lapa Doce, Torrinha and Pratinha, located within the Marimbus-Iraquara Environmental Protection Area (APA). Other notable formations include Poço Encantado, Poço Azul and Lapa do Bode, near the Andaraí – Itaetê road.

This post is also on: Português English