Ouro Preto, the 'Rich Village' of Brazil

Ouro Preto, "Black Gold," is a Brazilian city designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to its Baroque colonial architecture including many spectacular churches scattered around the cobble-stone city. 

The municipality became the most populous city in Latin America with 40,000 people in 1730 and, decades after, with 80,000 inhabitants. At that time, the population of New York City was less than half of that number and the population of São Paulo did not surpass 8,000. Officially, 800 tons of gold were sent to Portugal in the eighteenth century, not to mention what was circulated illegally, nor what remained in the colony used in the ornamentation of the churches.