The main house
The coffee era.
Fazenda Pau d'Alho is a historic coffee-era farm in São José do Barreiro, in the São Paulo part of the Paraíba Valley. Its main house was built around 1818, and it has been listed as national heritage since 1968 and as state heritage since 1982. Its origins go back to 1792, and when Colonel João Ferreira de Sousa inherited the land he founded the farm and built the house. In 1822 the French botanist Auguste de Saint-Hilaire noted that its coffee plantation was the largest he had seen along the road to Rio de Janeiro. That same year Prince Dom Pedro passed by on his way to São Paulo, days before Brazil declared independence, and a story is told of the mistress of the house who failed to recognise him when he asked for food. The farm tells the story of the wealth coffee brought to the Paraíba Valley in the nineteenth century and of the enslaved labour on which it rested. Check visiting times before going.
The coffee era.
Before independence.
Coffee history.
São José do Barreiro municipality, São Paulo part of the Paraíba Valley
It is one of the valley's oldest coffee farms, visited by Dom Pedro before independence.