Jacobina

Lat: -11.180811111111000, Long: -40.517805555556000

Jacobina

Bahia, Brazil

Historical Background and Urbanism

The region was originally occupied by the Paiaiás, being cleared for cultivation in the mid-17th century. In 1658, land was distributed in Jacobina, where cattle pens belonging to the descendants of Garcia D’Ávila, owners of the Casa da Torre, were installed. In the last years of that century, gold was discovered in Jacobina, supposedly by Roberto Dias, but its exploitation was forbidden by the government of Dom Rodrigo da Costa (1702-1705). In 1705, António da Silva Pimentel and his wife Isabel Maria Guedes de Brito, founders of the Casa da Ponte and great landholders in the area, were authorised to build a missionary chapel on their land in Bom Jesus, at the city’s present-day site. The following year, the chapel was entrusted to the Franciscans to catechise the native inhabitants. To control illicit mining and disorders, the Count of Sabugosa entrusted the sertanista Pedro Barbosa Leal with the task of founding towns and setting up gold foundries in Rio de Contas and Jacobina. The town of Jacobina was founded in 1722 at the Franciscan mission of Our Lady of the Snows of Sahy in the present-day municipality of Senhor do Bonfim. Two years later, it moved to the hamlet of Bom Jesus, its current site. Diamonds were also discovered in Jacobina in 1732, but this fact was hidden from the public as the mining of such gemstones was forbidden. The deposits only began to be worked a century later, when mining activity was liberalised. The high international cotton prices and surplus workforce attracted by mining favoured cotton growing in Jacobina, even in the 18th century. The town was raised to the status of a city in 1880.

Religious Architecture

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