The origin of Ouro Preto is in the town of Padre Faria, founded by the bandeirante Antônio Dias de Oliveira, by Padre João de Faria Fialho and by Colonel Tomás Lopes de Camargo and his brother, around 1698.
Due to the combination of these various camps, becoming the seat of the council, it was elevated to the category of town in 1711 with the name of Vila Rica. In 1720 it was chosen as the capital of the new captaincy of Minas Gerais. In 1823, after the Independence of Brazil, Vila Rica received the title of Imperial City, conferred by D. Pedro I of Brazil, officially becoming the capital of the then province of Minas Gerais and becoming designated as Imperial City of Ouro. black. In 1839 the School of Pharmacy was created and in 1876 the School of Mines. It was the headquarters of the revolutionary movement known as Inconfidência Mineira. It was the capital of the province and later of the state, until 1897. The old capital of Minas has preserved a large part of its colonial monuments and in 1933 it was elevated to National Patrimony, being, five years later, cataloged by the institution that is today IPHAN. On September 5, 1980, at the fourth session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, held in Paris, Ouro Preto was declared a World Heritage Site.
No other Brazilian municipality has accumulated so many relevant historical facts for the construction of national memory as this vast municipality. The following stand out as important milestones in the history of Brazil:
- Last decade of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th - climax of the explorations of São Paulo, with the discovery of "black gold";
- 1708 - War of the Emboabas; the friction between paulistas and 'outsiders' reached a high point in the district of Cachoeira do Campo;
- 1720 – Revolt led by Filipe dos Santos; riots against the Quinto da Coroa Portuguesa;
- 1789 - Mineira inconfidence; collusion between certain segments of the mining society at the time of freeing Minas from the Portuguese yoke.
In 1897, Ouro Preto lost its status as the capital of Minas Gerais, mainly because it did not present viable alternatives to physical urban development, with the transfer of the headquarters to the old Curral Del'Rey (where a new city, Belo Horizonte, was planned). and spacious, was being prepared). The old city continued to polarize its neighborhoods, however, the municipality was only the shadow of what was the Term of Vila Rica. In 1923, by Law No. 843 of September 7, the former Itabira do Campo, now Itabirito, was emancipated, and in 1953 the municipality of Ouro Branco was created, dismembered from Ouro Preto by Law No. 1039, of September 12, 1923.
Currently, the districts of Ouro Preto are the following:
Cachoeira do Campo, Amarantina, Glaura (Casa Branca), São Bartolomeu, Santo Antônio do Leite, Rodrigo Silva, Miguel Burnier, Engenheiro Correia, Santa Rita, Santo Antônio do Salto, Antônio Pereira and Lavras Novas.
Of these, those of colonial origin are: Cachoeira do Campo, São Bartolomeu, Glaura (Casa Branca), Amarantina, Antônio Pereira, Lavras Novas. They took shape in the 19th century due to commercial activity: Santa Rita de Ouro Preto, Santo Antônio do Salto, Santo Antônio de Leite (although all three also had their nucleus in the 18th century, they only gained momentum in the 19th century). They developed in the 19th century as a consequence of the presence of the railway (with a strong presence of railway architecture): Rodrigo Silva, Miguel Burnier, Engenheiro Corrêa.
Source: https://ouropreto.mg.gov.br/historia
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See also information on São Paulo, Belo Horizonte y Paris.
