Centro Historic de Ouro Preto, UNESCO Site Ouro Preto, State of Bahia, Brazil
The city of Ouro Preto is located in the State of Minas Gerais, south of Belo Horizonte.
The first references to the existence of gold in the region of Ouro Preto appear in the seventeenth century, when a mulatto named Duarte Nunes, when removing the trough that had plunged into the waters of a river, observed some dark stones that strangely shone.
These stones came to the hand of the then governor of Rio de Janeiro, Artur de Sá Meneses, who found that it was gold covered with a thin layer of iron oxide. At the end of the seventeenth century, an expedition arrived at the place of discovery and, in an improvised chapel, the first mass was recited. In 1711 already there existed diverse groups that were reunited in a single nucleus, to which the name of Villa Rica de Albuquerque was given in homage to António de Albuquerque, then governor of the captaincy of S. Paulo and Minas do Ouro. D. João V abbreviated the name to Vila Rica and, later, the town would change the name to Ouro Preto, originally the name of one of the arraiais that composed the town.
Ouro Preto stands out from the generality of the Minas Gerais cities of Brazil because of its status as the seat of the provincial government, the establishment of the Casa dos Contos (the largest house of the Chamber and Chain of the Colony), religious life, the refinement of society educated by the cult Of letters and arts.
Ouro Preto was the first Brazilian historical center to receive the designation of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Ouro Preto stands out from the generality of the Minas Gerais cities of Brazil because of its status as the seat of the provincial government, the establishment of the Casa dos Contos (the largest house of the Chamber and Chain of the Colony), religious life, the refinement of society educated by the cult Of letters and arts. Ouro Preto was the first Brazilian historical center to receive the denomination of Historical and
Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity by UNESCO. Ouro Preto stands out from most of the mining towns of Brazil for its headquarters condition of the provincial government, the implementation of House of Tales (the biggest house of the House and Chain Cologne), religious life, the refinement of polite society worship Of letters and arts. Ouro Preto was the first Brazilian historical center to receive the designation of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Ouro Preto is distinguished from the other mining cities by the nobility of the materials used in the construction of the urban agglomerate and presents a vernacular architecture identical to that of the Portuguese settlements of Minho and Alto Douro.
The predominance of stone buildings and the richness of the churches are examples of the environment of material and cultural prosperity that lived there. From the historic center of Ouro Preto, buildings such as the former Governors Palace, the former House of the House and Chain, the House of the Tales, the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Church of Our Lady of Pilar and the Church of St. Francis of Assisi.
The construction of the former Palace of the Governors began in 1741, by order of Gomes Freire
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