Historic Town of Ouro Preto

Historic Town of Ouro Preto

Founded at the fade away of the 17th century, Ouro Preto (meaning Black Gold) was originally called Vila Rica, or "neatly-to-buy village", the focal dwindling of the gold hurry and Brazil's golden age in the 18th century knocked out Portuguese find.

The city center contains skillfully-preserved Portuguese colonial architecture, as soon as few signs of lecture to looking urban build taking place. Any toting occurring constructions are required to do its stuff keeping once the city's historical aesthetic. 18th- and 19th-century churches decked out when gold and the sculptured works of Aleijadinho create Ouro Preto a prime tourist destination.

The tremendous great quantity from gold mining in the 18th century created a city which attracted the intelligentsia of Europe. Philosophy and art flourished, and evidence of a baroque revival called the "Barroco Mineiro" is illustrated in architecture as proficiently as by sculptors such as Aleijadinho, painters such as Mestre Athayde, composers such as Lobo de Mesquita, and poets such as Toms Antnio Gonzaga. At that period, Vila Rica was the largest city in Brazil, behind 100,000 inhabitants.

In 1789, Ouro Preto became the birthplace of the Inconfidncia Mineira, a unproductive attempt to profit independence from Portugal. The leading figure, Tiradentes, was hanged as a threat to any higher revolutionaries.

In 1876, the Escola de Minas (Mines School) was created. This university conventional the technological opening for several of the mineral discoveries in Brazil.

Ouro Preto was capital of Minas Gerais from 1720 until 1897, later than the needs of supervision outgrew this town in the valley. The confess dispensation was moved to the added, planned city of Belo Horizonte.