Ouro Preto · A City Dug Out of Gold

Ouro Preto is a city of the Brazilian gold rush: in the eighteenth century its mines produced gold in great quantity, its richest church was covered wall to wall in gold leaf, and its streets climb and fall steeply through the hills.

When the gold ran out the city simply stopped, and its churches, fountains and cobbled streets remain as they were; it later became a World Heritage site. The city’s best-known church was completed by a sculptor who worked at night — he had lost his fingers and toes, and finished the twelve prophets on the roof with iron hooks and a chisel.

Those prophets now stand on the steps in front of the church, exposed to wind and rain for more than two hundred years.

Historical Mysteries / Minas Gerais · Brazil / 1711