The city is a center for export of coffee draining most of the production of the south of Minas Gerais, making the grain trade with several countries.

The city is equidistant from the three largest metropolitan areas in Brazil (Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo).

The bandeirantes coming from São Paulo via the Paraíba Valley crossed the Mantiqueira mountain range in the region of the Embaú gorge, today's Passa Quatro.

Among the São Paulo bandeirantes, the first and foremost was Fernão Dias Pais Leme, who explored the region and headed north into the backlands in search of the indigenous legend of Sabarabuçu.

The muleteers, who were passing through Varginha on a regular basis, built a small chapel in 1785, close to where the Divine Holy Spirit parish church now stands.

The town was then given the name of Catanduvas or Catandubas; a word originally from the Tupi language, meaning "undergrowth, closed, rough and thorny, of small size".

In order to meet the need for an alternative labor force to slavery, since there were no more slaves due to the abolition of slavery, the Brazilian government made an agreement with Italy, in which many Italians came to Brazil with their expenses paid by the Brazilian government; in return, the Italians had to work for a certain period of time in coffee production, receiving a certain percentage of the production.

This was an unusual move by the Brazilian government, since many of the soldiers known as "pracinhas", who left Varginha and other regions of Brazil, had direct relatives such as uncles and grandparents in the country to which they were sent to fight.

Varginha has the biggest GDP in the southern region of Minas Gerais, a prosperous area with a high HDI and close to big economy centers in the state of São Paulo.