Irará is a city in

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The municipality is the hometown of former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

Dida, of

A.C. Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

and

Brazil national football team The Brazil national football team (), nicknamed ''Seleção Canarinho'' ("Canary Squad", after their bright yellow jersey), represents Brazil in men's international Association football, football and is administered by the Brazilian Football Co ...

fame and musician

Tom Zé Antônio José Santana Martins (born 11 October 1936), known professionally as Tom Zé (), Born in Irará, Bahia, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who was influential in the Tropicália movement of 1960s Br ...

. Until the 17th century, the region was inhabited by the Irará was settled by the Paiaiá, a subgroup of the Quiriris peoples. The land was annexed by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and became part of the vast land holdings of Garcia d'Ávila (1528-1609) in the

Captaincy of Bahia The Captaincy of Bahia, fully the Captaincy of the Bay of All Saints (Modern ), was a captaincy of Portuguese Brazil. History Donatary Captaincy King João III of Portugal bestowed the donatary captaincy on Francisco Pereira Coutinho on 5 Mar ...

. The Jesuits explored the area from the north via their settlement in present-day Água Fria.

Bandeirantes ''Bandeirantes'' (; ; singular: ''bandeirante'') were settlers in colonial Brazil who participated in expeditions to expand the colony's borders and subjugate Indigenous peoples in Brazil, indigenous peoples during the early modern period. T ...

entered the city to both hunt for precious stones in the Serra de Irará and to enslave indigenous people. Two structures remain from the bandeirantes, a church in the Vila de Bento Simões and a chapel in Caroba. In mid-1717, the first explorations of the lands in the center of the current municipality were registered, where Antônio Homem da Fonseca Correia was an early permanent Portuguese settler to the area. He built a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Conception in 1717, and left the land to his son. The farmhouse of the family gave rise to the village of Irará, which was also a site of a Paiaiá settlement.

References

Municipalities in Bahia {{bahia-geo-stub