Cristalina

History

The history of Cristalina began in the eighteenth century with gold exploration. An abundance of rock crystal and in 1879 two Frenchmen, Etienne Lopes and Leon Laboissière, residents of Paracatu, bought some of the crystal and exported it to Paris. They then settled in a place called Serra Velha where they set up their operations. Later, after the failure of the first miners, another Frenchman, Emílio Levy, arrived trading cloth for crystal and built his house, stimulating others to arrive. In 1901 the district of Serra dos Cristais was created belonging to the municipality of Santa Luzia, now Luziânia. In 1916 it was emancipated as São Sebastião dos Cristais, later changed to Cristalina.