The old centre of Pomerode along Rua 15 de Novembro and the surrounding streets contains one of the largest concentrations of enxaimel buildings in Brazil. Enxaimel is the Portuguese name for Fachwerk — the half-timbered construction technique in which a structural wooden frame is filled with brick or clay, leaving the dark wood beams exposed against whitewashed or painted panels. The buildings look as if they were transplanted from rural Germany or the Alsace, which in a sense they were.
Walking the main street and its side roads takes about an hour at a relaxed pace. The architecture ranges from modest single-storey farmhouses to more prosperous two-storey commercial buildings with decorative carved details. Several still serve their original functions as homes and small shops. The density is genuine — this is not a heritage zone reconstructed for tourism but a town where people have simply kept building in the style their grandparents used.