Ouro Preto Day Trip from Belo Horizonte: UNESCO Baroque Churches & Gold Mines

One hundred kilometres southeast of Belo Horizonte along the mountain curves of the Estrada Real, the eighteenth-century gold-rush town of Ouro Preto climbs across steep green valleys beneath the rocky peak of Itacolomi (1,772 m). Founded around 1698 as Vila Rica after prospectors discovered black gold-bearing pebbles (ouro preto) in the Tripuí stream, the city financed the Baroque splendour of the Portuguese Empire and sparked Brazil's 1789 Inconfidência Mineira independence movement. In 1980, Ouro Preto became the very first site in Brazil inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (Ref. 124).

1. Aleijadinho and Mestre Ataíde at Igreja de São Francisco de Assis (1766 to 1794)

Just down the slope from the central square stands the masterpiece of Brazilian Rococo art, the Igreja de São Francisco de Assis, where two native-born masters of Minas Gerais collaborated:

• Aleijadinho's Soapstone Carvings: Architect and sculptor Antônio Francisco Lisboa, universally known as O Aleijadinho (1738 to 1814), designed the curved twin-towered facade and carved its intricate circular soapstone (pedra-sabão) portal showing Saint Francis receiving the stigmata on Mount La Verna, as well as the two interior soapstone pulpits and the high-altar retable.
• Mestre Ataíde's Illusionistic Ceiling (1801 to 1812): Look up inside the nave to see painter Manuel da Costa Ataíde's glorious sky-blue ceiling perspective, where a brown-skinned Virgin Mary (Nossa Senhora dos Anjos) ascends surrounded by mulatto cherubs playing eighteenth-century baroque instruments. Right in front of the church, browse the open-air Feira de Pedra-Sabão for carved soapstone cookware and jewellery boxes containing golden imperial topaz mined only around Ouro Preto.

2. Basílica de Nossa Senhora do Pilar, Praça Tiradentes & Gold Mines

• Basílica Menor de Nossa Senhora do Pilar (1711 to 1733): Down in the historic Pilar parish stands one of the most opulent gilded interiors in the Americas, where more than 400 kilograms of gold leaf and 434 carved wooden angels line a dramatic ten-sided nave shaped like a theatre box.
• Praça Tiradentes & Museu da Inconfidência: At the cobblestone summit of the town, the monumental 1785 former Colonial Town Hall and Prison (Casa de Câmara e Cadeia) houses the Museu da Inconfidência, preserving the pantheon of the 1789 conspirators alongside sculptures by Aleijadinho.
• Historic Gold Mines & Neighbouring Mariana: Descend by trolley into the vast underground galleries and subterranean lake of the Mina da Passagem (halfway to neighbouring Mariana, founded in 1696 as Minas Gerais's oldest town), or visit the hillside Mina do Chico Rei. Hourly coaches link Belo Horizonte's central Rodoviária with Ouro Preto in two hours.