The origins of the region go back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the bandeirantes, explorers from the Portuguese colonial period, passed through on their way to the captaincy of Goias in search of gold. The region offered modest returns for prospectors. In 1771, the Conde de Valadares, Captain General of Minas Gerais, asked Inacio de Oliveira Campos to survey and excavate the area, and in 1773 Campos started a ranch called Bromado dos Pavoes in the valley of the Rio Dourados. The settlement was renamed Salitre when it became part of the Capitania of Goias. By 1793 the first permanent settlers had arrived, and in 1800 they built the first chapel. The settlement at this stage was still an arraial, a rural village, called Senhora do Patrocinio. It grew slowly. In 1819 the place had about forty houses, built of mud bricks and wood with tile roofs, and no plaster on the walls. In 1842, Nossa Senhora do Patrocinio was declared a municipality, separated from Araxa.

The municipal watershed belongs to the Paranaiba River basin. The Quebranzol and Santo Antonio rivers feed the Araguari. The Dourados, Perdizes, and Espirito Santo rivers add their water, along with streams called the Salitre, Pavoes, Macaubas, and Corrego do Ouro. Waterfalls hide in this network, notably the Cachoeiras do Lemos on the Ribeirão de Rita Matos and the Cachoeira dos Borges. Few tourists find them. Patrocinio also hosts the largest area in the region inundated by the Hydroelectric Reservoir of Nova Ponte, a total of 135.44 square kilometers. In 2006 the reservoir reached its maximum level at 815 meters above sea level. The vegetation is cerrado, the classic Brazilian tropical savanna, but soybean expansion has cleared most of the original trees. Rainfall is abundant, between 1,100 and 1,600 millimeters per year, concentrated in a six-to-seven-month season from October through April. The altitude moderates the heat. Patrocinio never gets as oppressively hot as the lowland cerrado cities.

Patrocinio ranks as the third-largest hog producer in Brazil. Fourteen large producers run operations with thousands of sows apiece. Together with dozens of smaller ones, they keep around 5,399 sows, each averaging 22 piglets per year, for a total over 125,000 animals. Production moves through the supply chain to Uberlandia and Belo Horizonte. Dairy is the other dominant activity. The bovine herd runs to 132,000 head across 2,166 producers, yielding 130,000 liters of milk a day, most of it heading to the Belo Horizonte market. Some becomes traditional cheese and candy. Coffee processing adds another layer. Warehouses handle the beans coming in from the surrounding plantations. Ceramics, cold meats, animal feed, and textiles including Minas Silk round out the industrial portfolio. The commercial sector is strong for a municipality of this size, a reflection of how much rural wealth actually passes through it.

East of town, Chapadao lake sits in what is believed to be an impact crater, visible from Google Earth's satellite views. A small portion of the feature is lake. The rest is farmland, the old crater floor now pivoting with center-pivot irrigation. The crater's status as an impact site remains a working hypothesis, but the circular depression is unmistakable from orbit. Culturally, Patrocinio guards the tradition of the Congadas, folkloric dance groups that preserve a strong African-Brazilian heritage. The festivities honor Nossa Senhora do Rosario, São Benedito, and Santa Luzia, and they run mostly between August and January. This is one of the richest traditions brought across the Atlantic by enslaved people from the Congo-Angola region who were trafficked into this area during the colonial centuries. The dancers, in elaborate costumes, perform processional routes that combine Catholic devotion with rhythms and movements carried from Central Africa. The Congadas are a reminder that the region's history includes both the landowner's prayer and the faith communities built by the people whose forced labor made the landowner wealthy.