Arrival: Diamantina
Diamantina is the most remote of Minas Gerais's colonial cities and arguably the most coherent. Its historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999, recognised for what the city represents: the moment in the eighteenth century when Portugal's diamond rush collided with the serra and produced something entirely its own. The former Arraial do Tejuco — settled after 1713 following the discovery of alluvial diamonds in the streams of the upper Jequitinhonha — was quickly placed under strict crown control as the Distrito Diamantino, with severe restrictions on movement and commerce. That isolation, paradoxically, helped preserve the city's architectural unity: there was little incentive or capital for demolition and rebuilding, and what went up in the eighteenth century largely stayed.
The three afternoon stops form a loose walking circuit of about half an hour's walking in total, with time to linger at each.
The Mercado Velho — formally the Mercado Municipal, also known as the Mercado dos Tropeiros — is the natural starting point. Built in 1835 by Tenente Joaquim Cassimiro Lage, a Black merchant, as a combined residence, trading post, and rancho for the tropeiros who brought goods down from the northern sertão, it became the commercial hub of the Distrito Diamantino. The building's arcaded wooden façade, painted in blue and white, is one of the most photographed streetscapes in the city; the arches, an unusual architectural choice for a non-religious colonial building, are said to have influenced Oscar Niemeyer in his designs for Brasília — a city with deep Diamantina roots. IPHAN listed the building in 1950. Inside, the stone-floored hall now functions as a cultural centre and small market, selling sempre-vivas, artesanato, local cachaça, and — reportedly the thing to try — pastel de angu.