Mariana

The first capital of Minas Gerais – it is the only one with a planned layout among the colonial cities of Minas Gerais. Its historic center, listed by IPHAN (National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage) in 1945, presents an architectural collection composed of monuments that mark the golden years of past opulence, characterized by gold mining. The polycentric urban layout – dotted with churches, Stations of the Cross, and fountains – reveals the scenic effect typical of the Baroque aesthetic with Portuguese influence.

Among the listed religious monuments, the following stand out: the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption (Sé Church, one of the oldest churches in Minas Gerais), the Major Seminary of Mariana (in neoclassical style), the group of townhouses on Rua Direita (with commercial buildings on the ground floor and balconies on the upper floor, one of which is the house where the poet Alphonsus Guimarães lived), and the sacred paintings of Manoel da Costa Athaíde.

In João Pinheiro Square, just a few meters from each other, are the churches erected by the powerful brotherhoods of Saint Francis of Assisi and Carmel. The churches of Our Lady of Mercy and the Rosary, belonging to the black brotherhoods, are further away: the first located five blocks from the square and the other on a more distant elevation. Having not achieved the development of Ouro Preto, Mariana has fewer civil buildings and temples than the old Vila Rica.