The municipality of Belmiro Braga is located in the mesoregion of Zona da Mata, specifically in the Juiz de Fora microregion, its bordering municipality. The municipality has a population of 3,067 (IBGE, 2007), over 70% of which live in the rural zone, and it is 243km or so from Belo Horizonte. It began when the new road was opened – one of the roads to the region in Minas Gerais during colonial Brazil – and was called Vargem Grande, the village that today is Belmiro Braga, having long been part of the municipality of Juiz de Fora. It was only in 1962, when it was emancipated, that it was renamed Belmiro Braga, in homage to the Minas Gerais poet Belmiro Belarmino de Barros Braga, who had been born there. However, it was the artist Antonio de Oliveira, wood carver, who made the town famous with his various exhibitions. Antonio reproduced in his mechanized figures his actual or imagined experiences, creating his “enchanted world”.