October 13, 2005MarianaMariana, a small town 10 km from Ouro Preto, was the first capital of Minas Gerais. Mariana was supposed to be smaller then Ouro Preto, but to me it actually felt bigger, more of a real city. There were three churches clustered right next to each other, and a few more some distance away. We were tired by then and it was hot, so we ended up only looking at whatever was close. One of the churches in Mariana allowed photography, so I took the opportunity. Unfortunately, this church, probably from the time when the gold was running out, does not represent the gilt-it-all approach that the region is famous for. There is still plenty of gold, but it's incomparable with some of the others. The nave of the church is made of wood and painted, as seems to be very common in Brazil. In a different church they told us that to restore the ceiling they take the planks of wood down, restore them individually, then put them back. The floor is covered with numbers. We were told that you were supposed to buy a number, which then marked where you got to stand during the sermon. The saint is dressed as in all churches in Ouro Preto and Mariana. They told us that they only have faces and hands attached to a wooden skeleton, covered with real clothes. Those saints that didn't have a head peace covering their hair had real human hair. Filed under: Brazil Summer-Fall 2005 , Ouro Preto CommentsOctober 13, 2005A Gold MineAfter spending a night and the following morning in Ouro Preto, we headed for a smaller town of Mariana, about 10 km away. On the way, however, we got off the bus to visit a gold mine. This mine is privately owned and the owners charge R$17 for entrance, which includes a trip 100 m down into the mine on a little rail car, an brief excursion there, and a trip back. The mine is supposed to be 300 meters deep, but most of it is flooded. At the 100 m level where we were there was a lake with remarkably transparent water, to a point that you would have to look carefully to see where the water begins. (Maybe that was just because it was dark.) The reflection of the walls in the water gave me some pretty low-light photos (one of those cases where the photo looks better than it did to the naked eye). In this case, not only allowed us to photograph but advertized it as a feature of the excursion. Of course, they don't mention that your pictures would be useless unless you are using a tripod or have a camera with a swiveling body that can be rested on the floor. Filed under: Brazil Summer-Fall 2005 , Ouro Preto Please leave your comments. The comments are moderated against link spam and may not appear on the site immediately. Comentários em português são bem-vindos. Puede escribir en castellano también, pero puedo responder solamente en Portuñol. Mozhno po-russki, no v nastoyaschii moment tol'ko v translite. You can also email me at yuri{at}freewisdom.org. October 11, 2005Back Streets of Ouro PretoThe center of Ouro Preto is filled with tourists, but if you walk just a few blocks away, you end up in charming rural streets, some with artesan shops and bars for the locals, some simply empty. You need to be prepared to go up and down, sometimes using stairs. I don't think Ouro Preto has a single street that maintains the same level for more than 3 meters. Filed under: Brazil Summer-Fall 2005 , Ouro Preto Please leave your comments. The comments are moderated against link spam and may not appear on the site immediately. Comentários em português são bem-vindos. Puede escribir en castellano también, pero puedo responder solamente en Portuñol. Mozhno po-russki, no v nastoyaschii moment tol'ko v translite. You can also email me at yuri{at}freewisdom.org. October 11, 2005The Churches of Ouro PretoWe went to Ouro Preto to see the churches, and there was no shortage of them. There are no photos from inside the churches, however, since photography is prohibited inside all of them and they seemed to be serious about it. I thought it was a bit lame, but complied. All the churches in Ouro Preto were constructed in 18th century in a similar style, apparently known as "barroco mineiro." The later ones were constructed with participation of a famous Brazilian sculptor commonly known as "Aleijadinho" - "the little cripple". (Aleijadinho developed a degenerative condition after 40, progressively losing control of his hands, but continued working, tying tools to his arms.) The other sculptors and architects of Ouro Preto churches seem to always be described by their relation to Aleijadinho - "this church was built by the father of Aleijadinho," "this altar was constructed by the teacher of Aleijadinho," etc. Sort of like "six degrees of Aleijadinho." Apart from architect's relation to Aleijadinho, the most important piece of trivia about each church is the number of kilograms of gold used in its construction. The amount of gold and the aleijadinhoness of the church are inversely related, since at the times of Aleijadinho the gold was already running out. The less gilted Aleijadinho buildings are located at the center of the town, while the more guilted pre-Aleijadinho churches are on the two ends of the town. Aleijadinho's participation in the construction of the church is often marked with his signature monkey-lion sculptures. Those creatures roughly look like lions, but their faces are strangely monkey-like. As I understand, those strange sculptures were not meant to represent Aleijadinho's vision of the future of genetic engineering, but simply reflected the fact that he had never seen a lion in his life. Filed under: Brazil Summer-Fall 2005 , Ouro Preto Please leave your comments. The comments are moderated against link spam and may not appear on the site immediately. Comentários em português são bem-vindos. Puede escribir en castellano también, pero puedo responder solamente en Portuñol. Mozhno po-russki, no v nastoyaschii moment tol'ko v translite. You can also email me at yuri{at}freewisdom.org. October 9, 2005Ouro PretoLast weekend we went to visit Ouro Preto, an old capital of Minas Gerais. The town was founded in 1690s, soon after gold was discovered in Minas Gerais and at one point was the largest city in Brazil. It eventually got the name "Ouro Preto" ("black gold") because local gold was mixed with iron ore. (The name of the state - "Minas Gerais" - also refers to mining - "General Mines.") By the end of the 18th century the gold rush was over, the city started losing importance, and the capital of the state eventually ended up being moved to Belo Horizonte, about 100 km away. Ouro Preto is now a small touristy town, a bit dilapidated, but unscarred by later architecture. Ouro Preto features a remarkable number of churches, most of which look rather alike on the outside but vary dramatically inside: some are relatively ascetic, while others are decorated with ridiculous amount of gold. We were told that 400 kg of gold was used in construction of one of the churches, which was enough to gold-plate pretty much everything inside. The gold-plated altar serves as a backdrop for a crucifix made of silver, reflecting the fact that, as our guide told us, silver was twice as expensive as gold in Ouro Preto at the time: while gold was mined in abundance nearby, silver had to be brought from Spain, and the transportation was expensive. (I didn't quite understand why they were bringing the silver back from Spain, given that most of the silver was coming from the mines in the Andes). Filed under: Brazil Summer-Fall 2005 , Ouro Preto Comments
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Quoth vickie karp, on November 8, 2007 at 12:10 p.m.: Thank you for the great info. I know that Elizabeth Bishop lived in Ouro Preto, and that her house was named Casa Mariana after the poet Marianne Moore. Do you know if the town of Mariana has any connection to this? Also, do you know if that house is on the historical register or anything about who lives there today? Please leave your comments. The comments are moderated against link spam and may not appear on the site immediately. Comentários em português são bem-vindos. Puede escribir en castellano también, pero puedo responder solamente en Portuñol. Mozhno po-russki, no v nastoyaschii moment tol'ko v translite. You can also email me at yuri{at}freewisdom.org. |
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Please leave your comments. The comments are moderated against link spam and may not appear on the site immediately. Comentários em português são bem-vindos. Puede escribir en castellano también, pero puedo responder solamente en Portuñol. Mozhno po-russki, no v nastoyaschii moment tol'ko v translite. You can also email me at yuri{at}freewisdom.org.