ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between the architecture of production and transportation routes in the formation of the urban network that composed the extraction economy of Brazil during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The study area focuses on the Pardo River Sertão, which was structured by tropeiro paths and railways. We utilize the methods of Urban History and employ a variety of scales to reveal the complexity of the urbanization process. We also use the Historical Geographic Information System to analyze the circulation networks of farms, rural neighborhoods, freguesias, villages and cities. The study reveals that architecture played a central role in the occupation of the sertões, and in supporting the agricultural and cattle economy. These economies also determined the types of buildings and transportation networks built in each period. Manor houses and chapels analyzed in this study are found to represent the hierarchies and social relationships among slaveowners, enslaved people and free workers. The landscape is viewed as a palimpsest, allowing for the interpretation of different periods and structures built by different generations. The current landscape contains preserved roads, paths and constructions that provide clues to the formation process of the territory and are important artifacts of regional heritage.
