Historic Town of Ouro Preto

In 1695 Manuel Borba Gato found gold at the Rio das Velhas, starting the Brazilian Gold Rush. In 1698 Vila Rica, the future Ouro Preto, was established, and in 1711 several small settlements were united as the municipality of Vila Rica. Thousands of fortune seekers poured in, and from 1720 the town was the capital of Minas Gerais.

Officially, 800 tonnes of gold were sent to Portugal in the 18th century. The wealth drew artists, and a style known as Barroco Mineiro took shape. Its leading figure was the sculptor Aleijadinho, son of a Portuguese master builder and an enslaved African mother, baptised in Vila Rica, whose main works include the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi. From after 1777 he worked on while a disease slowly deformed his body.

In 1789 the town was the birthplace of the Inconfidência Mineira, a failed attempt at independence from Portugal, and its leader Tiradentes was hanged. On 20 May 1823 the town was raised to a city and renamed Ouro Preto, Black Gold. As the mines ran out in the 19th century its influence waned, and in 1897 the state capital moved to the newly planned Belo Horizonte. The town of churches, bridges and fountains was inscribed in 1980.