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Diamantina's other important economic role is as the market town for the Jequitinhonha Valley. It's here that the products of the remote sertao towns of northeastern Minas are shipped and stockpiled before making their way to Belo Horizonte. The old Mercado dos Tropeiros on Praca Barao do Guaicui, just a block downhill from the cathedral square, is the focus of Diamantina's trade, and worth seeing for the building alone, an interesting tiled wooden structure built in 1835 as a trading station by the Brazilian army. Its frontage, a rustic but very elegant series of shallow arches, played a significant role in modern Brazilian architecture. Niemeyer, who lived in Diamantina for a few months in the 1950s to build the Hotel do Tijuco, was fascinated by it, and later used the shape for the striking exterior of the presidential palace in Brasilia, the Palacio da Alvorada. The market itself (Saturdays only) has a very Northeastern feel, with its cheeses, doces, blocks of salt and raw sugar, and mules and horses tied up alongside the pick-ups. The food at the stalls here is very cheap, but only for the strong-stomached: the rich mineiro sausages ( linguica) are worth trying. The rest of the week the market is used for exhibitions and book stalls. From the market you have a fine vantage point of a square which is, if anything, even richer than the Praca Conselheiro Mota, a cornucopia of colonial window frames and balconies and exquisite ironwork. Most of the ground floors are still ordinary shops, open throughout the week. The artesanato section of the market is small and uninspiring, which is unfortunate since the most distinctive products of the Jequitinhonha Valley are its beautiful clay and pottery figures. The Casa da Cultura, on Praca Antonio Eulalio, has a very good collection which enables you to get a grasp of what the Jequitinhonha potters do, but buying it is difficult. The most reliable place is a friendly and very reasonably priced specialist shop, Reliquias do Vale, on the same street as the Hotel do Tijuco, at Rua Macau do Meio 401. Besides the pottery, they also have a good stock of the rough but very rugged cotton clothes, hammocks, arraiolos carpets and wall hangings that are the other specialities of the region. You'll find numerous other carpet shops dotted around town.
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