Itabira

Itabira

Itabira is a Brazilian municipality and a major city in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area mesoregion and to the Itabira microregion. It is currently the twenty-fourth largest city in the state in terms of population, with 120,904 inhabitants, according to a 2020 IBGE survey. It is known as the "Capital of Poetry", by virtue of being the birthplace of poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade, is part of the Circuit of the Gold and of Estrada Real. The first settlements at the site date to the early eighteenth century, when the village of Itabira do Mato Dentro was founded by bandeirantes seeking gold. Itabira was politically emancipated as a municipality on 9 October 1848, through Provincial Law No. 374.[citation needed]