Historic Town of Ouro
Historic Town of Ouro
Founded at the end of the 17th century, Ouro Preto (Black Gold) was the focal point of the gold rush and Brazil’s golden age in the 18th century. With the exhaustion of the gold mines in the 19th century, the city’s influence declined but many churches, bridges and fountains remain as a testimony to its past prosperity and the exceptional talent of the Baroque sculptor Aleijadinho.
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Founded in the early 18th century 513km north of Rio de Janeiro, the Historic Town of Ouro Preto (Black Gold) covers the steep slopes of the Vila Rica (Rich Valley), centre of a rich gold mining area and the capital of Minas Gerais Province from 1720-1897.
Along the original winding road and within the irregular layout following the contours of the landscape lie squares, public buildings, residences, fountains, bridges and churches which together form an outstanding homogenous group exhibiting the fine curvilinear form of Baroque architecture.
The Historic City of Ouro Preto was the symbolic center of the Inconfidência Mineira in 1789, a Brazilian independence movement, and home to exceptional artists responsible for many of the most significant works of the Brazilian Baroque period, including the Church of São Francisco of Assisi by the distinguished architect and sculptor Antônio Francisco Lisboa (Aleijadinho).
The area’s isolation for the better part of the 19th and 20th centuries generated economic stagnation, fostering preservation of the original colonial constructions and urban pattern.
Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves
The Discovery Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves, located between the southern coast of the state of Bahia and northern coast of the state of Espírito Santo, consist of eight separate protected areas containing representative remnants of the Atlantic Forest (dense rainforest) and a type of coastal shrubland vegatation ("restingas") associated with the Atlantic Forest.
Three national parks (Descobrimento, Monte Pascoal and Pau Brasil), two federal biological reserves (Sooretama and Una) and three special reserves (Veracruz, Pau Brasil/Ceplac and Linhares) extend over a total area of almost 112,000 hectares.
This property contains great biological wealth and illustrates the evolution of the few remaining areas of Atlantic Forest in north-eastern Brazil. With a high rate of endemism and an evolutionary stage of great interest to science and conservation, its biodiversity reflects longstanding ties with the major forest ecosystems of the continent, now interrupted.
