Around five hundred kilometres north of Rio De Janeiro, deep within the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, is a most remarkable place. Ouro Preto was discovered at the end of the seventeenth century by Portuguese gold prospectors. They found black gold which changed colour due to its iron content. Thus a prosperous gold town was born with fascinating Baroque and rococo architecture that has survived right up to the present day.

The region’s substantial mineral resources helped to create numerous magnificent buildings such as the Igreja De São Francisco De Assis that was completed by the Franciscan Order in 1820. It is one of the most impressive Baroque churches in Latin America.

Cleverly, and rather than pay excessive taxes to the Portuguese crown, the town’s colonials successfully hid much of their gold in the artwork of Ouro Preto’s sacred buildings. Thus the treasures created by human hand live on and are now the fabulous legacy of a truly golden past!