Hello archi lovers!
Another new place and a new fascinating discovery, an architectural gem in the heart of Brazil, much more than lush vegetation, also a charming town with beautiful architecture that surprises us.
This is the city of Ouro Preto, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, whose capital is Belo Horizonte and from there we arrive... to this incredible place. Let's get to know it.
It seems like a small town, with lovely houses running along its hills, in a cheerful and peaceful atmosphere at the same time. But as we walk through these streets, we discover wonderful buildings with colonial-style baroque architecture, which I imagine have Portuguese influences due to the historical past of the area.
The Tiradentes square is one of the most important points, with what appears to be the main building and a monumental column presiding over the centre of the square, and suddenly it seems like we are in any town in Portugal or Spain, a marvel.
We continued walking down the streets, looking at the facades of more houses and buildings, some charming, others peculiar, and all with pretty windows, decorated with colors and with small balconies. A simple architecture that is fun, pretty and delightful, all at the same time, and that creates a very pleasant atmosphere.
And we look into the distance, surrounded by houses, and also a lot of vegetation, but also other curious details call our attention, such as some sundials on one of the facades, or a small, well-painted chapel, or we also notice again the vegetation that adorns the place and blends in harmony with all the local urban planning, and when we enjoy the views again, the place is even more beautiful, charming and seems to maintain an essence of the past.
But as we were saying, this architectural art that seems to emerge from the jungle actually comes from Portugal, and some of the houses demonstrate this with one of the characteristic blue tiled facades so typical of Portuguese lands.
And if we continue further, we perceive the urban space of a small town, not so small in reality, as it is a university city full of young life who later appear eager to have fun.
But not only houses and facades, on our tour we also discovered other buildings and monuments, but it is the churches that we like the most, where we clearly see that Portuguese influence in a simple baroque architecture with a clearly colonial air.
The most important is the Church of San Francisco de Asís, on top of a small hill that we reach, to find ourselves face to face with a small but elegant and magnificent baroque façade, in the middle of Brazil.
And finally we return to the center, where people begin to move around, surrounded by those charming houses, that beautiful architecture that surprises us in an unexpected place, because Brazil offers us much more than we think, and it is wonderful to be able to discover places like this, with historic architecture surrounded by jungle and with a lot of charm.
We will return to Brazil, because in this area there are some other towns worth mentioning and also some more surprises...
If you want to know more about Ouro Preto, or about the names of all these buildings and nice spots please you can visit: Ouro Preto (Wikipedia)