Ouro Preto – Brazil's Getaway For Art Lovers
Gold Created the World’s Biggest Baroque Architecture Collection
Feb 2, 2009
Portuguese miners ventured out in to the jungles of southeast Brazil’s Serra do Espinhaço mountain range and found black pebbles in the river. Rubbing them, they discovered that the pebbles were mineral encrusted gold nuggets so they named their town Ouro Preto, meaning Black Gold.
It remained the capital of the state of Minas Gerais until 1897. By that time the gold had run out and the center for mining of iron, bauxite and other minerals shifted, so the capital of Minas Gerais (General Mines) was moved to a new city, Belo Horizonte. But the wealth generated by gold during the 18th and most of the 19th centuries left behind a cultural heritage of vernacular Baroque art and architecture unmatched elsewhere in the world.
The church of St. Francis Assisi, adjacent to the Largo de Coimbra, is attributed to 18th-century architect and artist Antonio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho. He is also credited with several pieces inside that church and the church of Our Lady of Carmel (Nossa Sra de Carmo), which sits atop a nearby hill dominating the city.
Another of the must-see churches is the parish church of Our Lady of Pilar (Nossa Sra do Pilar). Built early in the 18th century it was enlarged later in the same century and it sits over a gold mine, the probable source of the almost half ton of gold that adorns its interior. The main altar is a mass of baroque columns swathed in swirling golden forms and inhabited by golden cherubs. Crowded over its broken-arch top are bearded saints and more grinning cherubs. Charming primitive pastoral paintings decorate the wainscot.
The Casa dos Contos (Counting House) offers a view of the city’s secular architecture. Originally an 18th-century home of a tax collector (who got caught, allegedly, with his hand in the cookie jar) it became a mint for gold coins. It now houses a museum with changing exhibits as well as permanent displays on the minting of coinage and local art. Underground, below the house, the former slave quarters now contain displays of armor, weapons and slave shackles.
In the imposing former town building at the head of the main square, the Museu da Inconfidéncia houses Ouro Preto’s primary historical museum. The building itself is an interesting secular building in the baroque style; part of it was the state jail. At the opposite end of the sloping praça (everything in hilly Ouro Preto is at a slant), the Museum of Science and Industry (Museo de Ciéncia e Técnica) has exhibits dealing with the mining process, but is best known for its extraordinary display of minerals from around the world. Among these are the famed precious and semi-precious stones of Brazil, many of which originate here in Minas Gerais.
There is much more to Ouro Preto, such as the beautiful and well maintained period houses that line its streets, the soapstone market in Largo do Coimbra and the original 18th century Opera House, still used for live performance. The Museo do Oratório has a good collection of baroque and 19th-century religious icon holders, and there are more than a dozen other churches to examine.
Visitors can also savor Minas cuisine at the city’s restaurants; foremost among these are Bene da Flauta and Acaso 85.
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