O Pico do Itacolomi na construção histórica da paisagem e da identidade de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the insertion of the Itacolomi Peak, a rocky formation with 1,772m of altitude, located between the cities of Ouro Preto and Mariana, in the in the formation of the idea of landscape and the identity for Minas Gerais during the republican period. This assay will be directed to the practices, intentions and discourses that inserted the Itacolomi Peak into a significant part for the regional history, the interpretation of the territory and the conformation of a cultural profile for the inhabitants of Minas Gerais. It is presented how Itacolomi received a prominent place in the speeches and actions that put in vogue asupposed supremacy of the state in the national context. It also made itself present in the narratives about characters and events of history and in the valuation of the mountains as characteristic of the landscape of the state. The text points out that it was in the historical construction of the landscape and of a local identity, called “mineira”, which this geomorphological formation has been established as an important natural monument for Minas Gerais.