Diamantina (population 50,000) lies 280 kilometers northeast of Belo Horizonte at 1,113 meters above sea level. Throughout its history, its evocative name has given rise to fabulous legends.
A walking tour around Diamantina begins at Mercado dos Tropeiros, the open market hall on Praqa Barao Guaicui, which was originally an assembly point for expeditions into the interior. Continuing north takes you past an unremarkable cathedral, and then to Casa do Intendente Umara, an extremely wellpreserved 18th-century colonial structure at the corner of Ruas das Merces and Direita. Followed eastward, the latter street leads to a house that Pater Rolim, one of the rebels in the uprising led by Tiradentes, once lived in and which is now the Museu do Diamante. The museum contains an unusual assemblage of collections: secular and ecclesiastical works of art from the 17th and 18th centuries; English and Chinese furniture; and documents pertaining to the work of diamond prospectors, and the types of punishment and torture to which slaves were subjected. Further east on Praia Juscelino Kubitschek stands the august former Palace of Justice, Casa do Antigo Forum, which dates from the 18th century. Diagonally across the plaza rises the Franciscan church of Sao Francisco de Assis (1766), whose main altar is entirely gilded. Just north of the church on Rua Sao Francisco (and open to the public) is the villa in which President Juscelino Kubitschek once lived.
Just to the west of the cathedral and only a short walk down Rua do Carmo stands the loveliest church in the entire area, Nossa Senhora do Carmo, which was commissioned by Joao Ferandes de Oliveira for his mistress Chica da Silva. Some disagreement arose over the site at the time it was built, because church officials objected to a plan that called for situating the bell tower in a small valley. This was at the express wish of Chica da Silva herself, however, who, it is said, feared that the ringing of bells would impinge upon her early morning sleep. The most striking works of art in the church are ceiling frescos (adjacent to the gilded organ) by Jose Scares de Araujo, depicting in masterfully muted tints Elijah's ascent to heaven. A short distance further north on Praia Lobo Mesquita stands the villa Chica da Silva lived in. This striking 18th-century edifice, which is open to the public, features a trelicas; a terrace with a trellis-like enclosure made of wood.
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