Antiga Estação Ferroviária de Diamantina

The afternoon closes at the Antiga Estação Ferroviária, a short walk from the historic centre. The station was opened in 1914 as the terminus of a line connecting Diamantina to Corinto, Curvelo, and eventually Belo Horizonte and the coast — built by the Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil after an earlier project, the Vitória-Diamantina line, was diverted toward Itabira's iron ore deposits and never arrived. Passenger services ran until the early 1970s; the line was formally suppressed in 1994. The building sits quietly now, its platforms empty, included in a federal partnership programme for eventual tourism redevelopment. It is worth the walk for what it represents: the late and partial arrival of the industrial age in a city that the crown had, for two centuries, deliberately kept isolated.

Sunset at the Cruzeiro

From the station, drive up to the Cruzeiro da Serra on the crest of the Serra dos Cristais for the end of the day. The cross sits at around 1,200–1,300 metres (3,900–4,300 ft) above the city, reached by a short paved road off the BR-367 on the edge of town; the drive takes only a few minutes and the road is signposted. From the ridge, the view opens in two directions: the colonial rooflines of Diamantina laid out below, its churches legible in the mass of white and coloured facades, and behind it the quartzite ridges of the Espinhaço receding toward the Pico do Itambé and the valleys of the upper Jequitinhonha. The light at this altitude, this latitude, and this time of day is often good — the sun drops behind the western ridgeline and throws the city into warm relief. February evenings can bring cloud, but the position is high enough that broken cloud sometimes improves rather than cancels the light.

Dinner

Back in the historic centre for dinner. The options cluster around the Praça Barão do Guaicuí and the lanes immediately off the Rua Direita. O Garimpo, operating out of a colonial mansion associated with the Pousada do Garimpo, is the most established kitchen in town — traditional mineiro dishes cooked by a chef who has been running the same menu for over thirty years, with signatures like bambá do garimpo (a thick bean stew with smoked ribs fried in pork lard) and frango com quiabo. It runs Tuesday to Friday for dinner from 18h, Saturdays from 13h. For something lighter and better suited to a beer, the Relicário, a short walk from the Mercado Velho, serves good petiscos — canjiquinha com costela, bolinhos de feijoada, dadinhos de tapioca — in a compact, retrô-decorated space. Either way, arrive by 19:30; Diamantina's dining scene is small and kitchens can lag when the city has visitors.