Stone ruins
The diamond age.
Leonardobatista — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Adelano Lázaro — Public domain · Alana Reis Enes Ribeiro — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Danielguimaraessouza — CC BY-SA 4.0
Igatu is a stone village on a mountaintop near Andaraí in the Chapada Diamantina, nicknamed «the Machu Picchu of Bahia» for its 19th-century stone houses and ruins, relics of the diamond-mining age. Its Tupi name means «good river», and it was once known as Xique-Xique de Igatu. At the height of the diamond rush it was a thriving village of about nine thousand people, with miners building their houses from the plentiful stone without mortar; when the diamond cycle ended it was largely abandoned, and in 2010 only about 360 people lived among closed houses and ruins. The village is now protected by the national heritage institute. Its highlights are the Galeria Arte & Memória, an open-air museum among mine ruins with a sculpture garden, contemporary art rooms and a café, and the restored Garimpo do Brejo mine, open to visitors. Wandering the village is free.
The diamond age.
Open-air museum.
A restored mine.
Igatu district, Andaraí, Chapada Diamantina, Bahia
For its 19th-century stone houses and ruins on the mountaintop, the remains of a diamond-mining village abandoned when the diamond cycle ended.