Ouro Prêto

A UNESCO World Heritage site of staggering beauty, Ouro Preto’s historic center is an open-air museum of 18th-century Brazilian baroque. Winding, steep, cobblestoned streets lead past ornate churches, elegant plazas, and colonial mansions, all nestled dramatically among forested hillsides. Walking these ancient paths allows travelers to step directly into the heart of Brazil’s gold-rush era, a period of immense wealth and artistic brilliance that produced the masterworks of sculptor Aleijadinho, whose legacy graces the town’s many sacred façades.

Considered one of the masterpieces of Brazilian Baroque, the Church of São Francisco de Assis is a lavishly ornate testament to the genius of Antônio Francisco Lisboa, better known as Aleijadinho. Externally adorned with a magnificent soapstone façade and a stunning tympanum depicting the Virgin Mary, its interior is breathtaking. Walls are covered in gilded carvings and anguished, life-size painted wooden statues by Mestre Ataíde, creating an enveloping theatrical space where artistic brilliance and religious fervor collide in a burst of gold leaf and stunning painted panels on the ceiling.

Rising like a sentinel over the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, the Serra do Gandarela unfurls a dramatic tapestry of quartzite peaks, crystalline rivers, and Atlantic Forest remnants that feel worlds away from the iron-ore mines encircling its flanks. This 38,000-hectare sanctuary protects the headwaters of the Rio das Velhas, a lifeline for Belo Horizonte, and harbors one of the last great stands of *campos rupestres*—a hyper-diverse, fire-adapted shrubland that blooms in electric yellows and purples each spring. Hikers who tackle the steep ascent to the Cachoeira do Moinho are rewarded with a curtain of water plummeting into a jade pool framed by orchid-draped cliffs, while the lesser-known Trilha do Gambá offers a gentler immersion in bromeliad gardens and the haunting call of the solitary tinamou. The park’s raw, untrammeled character—there are no visitor centers, no paved roads, only ranger posts and red-dirt tracks—makes every visit feel like a personal expedition into Brazil’s geological deep time.