Baroque Brazil Is Located in the State of Minas Gerais

One of the great secrets is found by Brazil travelers beyond the palm beaches, in the state of Minas Gerais, an area with golden soil. In Minas Gerais, magnificent examples of baroque colonial architecture are found in a small space, reminding us of the golden past.

In the parish church Nossa Senhora do Pilar of Ouro Preto, for example, all that glitters is gold. From floor to ceiling, the wood carvings are covered with the finest gold leaf. 434 kilograms of the precious metal were processed, making it one of the richest gold churches in Brazil. The magic of the baroque era transformed the gold mining town of Ouro Preto, in the intoxication of the 17th century, into a work of art. Magnificent churches, elegant palaces, and colorfully painted townhouses line up in the old town. The Portuguese master builders developed their style, the Barroco Mineiro. Carried by the gold boom, the most famous masters of Minas Baroque carpentered, carved, chiseled, and painted without a break and created one work of art after another.

Towards the end of the 18th century, the gold deposits exhausted and Ouro Preto fell into insignificance. From the point of view of today's visitor, this was a stroke of luck, because in this way the city remained almost unchanged. In 1701, however, there was still so much money available that one could afford an Arp Schnitger organ from Germany for one of the cathedrals. Similar to a film scene from Fitzcarraldo, here 964 organ pipes and stops were transported on mules from the coast to the mountains. After an elaborate restoration, it resounds again today.

Also in Tiradentes time seems to have stopped. Horse-drawn carriages await at the station, their spoked wheels bouncing over the brightly polished natural stones into the village. In the old town, where cars are not allowed to drive, much of the old town is still as it was at the end of the gold rush - only with freshly whitewashed facades, newly framed doors, and windows and repaired tiled roofs. Tiradentes brings it nevertheless on eight baroque churches and chapels. The Igreja Matriz de Santo Antonio is in no way inferior in beauty and splendor to the parish church of Ouro Preto and should be on the travel program during the next Brazil vacation. Only 34 kilograms less gold shimmer from the altars here.

Source: derstandard.at