TRAVELING IN STYLE : CITY OF BLACK GOLD : The Beautiful Mountain Hideaway of Ouro Preto Is a Living Monument to Brazil’s Colonial Heritage--and an Open-Air Bazaar for Precious Gems

AWAKENING TO A CHORUS of church bells, I opened the shutters at my window, took a deep breath of sweet mountain air and watched the colonial village materialize gradually out of the morning fog. Ghostly processions of pastel buildings crept up the steep cobblestone streets as a pink sun rose, highlighting the thick, whipped-cream curves of the stone churches that seemed to crown every hill.

It took me a moment to remember that I was in Brazil. The place, a town called Ouro Preto, seemed so European and so different from the heat and bustle of Rio de Janeiro, a mere 300 miles away, where I’d been the day before. It was as if I’d stepped abruptly out of the 20th Century and into the 18th.

Even the very name of the village, which means “Black Gold,” evokes the past. The black gold isn’t oil: About 300 years ago, a force of bandeirantes --the Portuguese equivalent of Spain’s conquistadores --came through here searching for gold. A servant in their party found some dark nuggets while drinking from a stream that runs near what is now the center of town.

At first, nobody realized what they were, but when they were presented to the governor of Rio, it was discovered that they were gold covered with a black layer of the mineral palladium. It took the bandeirantes years to find the same stream again, but when a subsequent expedition rediscovered the place in 1698 and started mining there, they tapped into what turned out to be the richest single gold deposit yet discovered in the New World. A thriving mining camp grew up around the place, and in 1711, the town of Vila Rica de Ouro Preto--the Rich City of Black Gold--was founded.

Shipped back to Portugal, gold from Ouro Preto financed the building of much of Lisbon--and later, through Portuguese trade agreements with England, helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. Ouro Preto also benefited from the gold, becoming the showplace of Brazil. The most talented craftsmen in the country were hired to transform the original mining camp into an architectural jewel. The first municipal theater in Brazil and one of its earliest universities were built here, as were countless grand houses and numerous churches. In 1721, the town became the capital of the state of Minas Gerais (General Mines). In its heyday, around 1750, Ouro Preto thrived with more than 100,000 people--at a time when New York City had only 50,000 and Rio 20,000.

The main vein of gold ran out in Ouro Preto late in the 18th Century, but rich loads of gemstones had also been discovered in the region, and it remained an important city for a time. In 1822, when Brazil gained its independence from Portugal, the Brazilian emperor, Dom Pedro I, declared it the Imperial City of Ouro Preto, and a short time later, Emperor Dom Pedro II built the National School of Mines here. By the late 19th Century, though, the provincial capital had been moved to Belo Horizonte, where it remains, and the town had become something of a backwater, its days of glory all but forgotten.

OURO PRETO BEGAN TO BE REDISCOVERED only in the early 1930s, when the Brazilian government named the town a protected National Monument, thus saving it from the ravages of “progress.” In 1981, the United Nations declared it a World Cultural Heritage Site, and judging from the range of guests staying at my hotel, the Pousada do Mondego, when I visited earlier this year, at least some of the world is interested in claiming its share. As I loaded my plate at the sumptuous buffet that is typical of Brazilian breakfasts--complete with platters of cold cuts, cheeses, fruit and a variety of breads--I heard French, Spanish, Portuguese and German. I sat with an amiable Brazilian couple who had come to spend a long weekend in the mountains. They told me that although few Americans come to Ouro Preto, it is becoming a popular vacation spot for Europeans and for tycoons from Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte, who have restored many of the old houses in town.

Like the rest of this protected place, the Pousada do Mondego reflects an extraordinary respect for the past. Located on a small square in the heart of town, it was once the mansion of an 18th-Century merchant. There are 20 carefully restored guest rooms in the pousada ( inn in Portuguese), furnished with Brazilian antiques. All the modern conveniences are there, too, from elegant marble bathrooms to TVs, but what I loved most about it were the original wide-plank mahogany floors, the tall windows with panes of old, wavy glass, and the whitewashed walls, constructed from wood and mud held together with leather ties. A sense of history was palpable.

On our first morning in Ouro Preto, when my husband, Tom, and I went out to explore, we immediately encountered another reminder of the town’s mining heritage--a cluster of gem dealers who had set up stalls in the square outside the pousada. “Come here, senhor ,” the dealers cried to my husband, opening small white paper packets to display glittering emeralds, diamonds, aquamarines, tourmalines, citrines and amethysts. The rarest stone of all, one of them told us, was the pale, sherry-colored imperial topaz, found only in two places on earth: the former Soviet Union and Ouro Preto.

I left Tom to bargain while I went to look at the beautiful old church across the square. This was the church of Sao Francisco de Assis--St. Francis of Assisi--a masterpiece of Brazilian baroque art, designed by the greatest sculptor of colonial Brazil, Antonio Francisco Lisboa, in the 1770s. Lisboa was a fascinating figure--a great, self-taught artist who was crippled by leprosy at an early age but continued to work with his tools strapped to his arms. The Brazilians affectionately call him Aleijadinho--”The Little Cripple”--and revere him for his talent and his courage. He has been called the Brazilian Michelangelo.

Lisboa’s round-cheeked stone cherubs beam down from the facade above the entrance to the church, like children spying on a party from a balcony. The main altar, also carved by Aleijadinho, presents a multitude of images--angels and stars, nuns and conquerors, golden crosses and abstract curlicues, all piled into a kind of pyramid on top of which stands a Madonna, wearing a wig and fabric robes. In front of her is a statue of St. Francis himself, carrying a skull and a cross in his outstretched hands and looking considerably more serious than the lover of birds and animals I remembered from Sunday school.

The wooden ceiling is colored with soft pastel paintings of another Madonna, attended by cherubs playing flutes, horns and violins, by Manoel de Costa Atiade. He is considered Brazil’s second-greatest colonial artist, after Aleijadinho. Atiade’s virgin and angels are black- or brown-skinned--as are most Brazilians. Atiade and Aleijadinho were mulatos, the sons of Portuguese men and black women, and because they were among the first to accurately portray the mixed racial heritage of their country, they are a source of great pride to the people of Brazil.

When I rejoined my husband--he had resisted the temptation to buy any gems--it was time for lunch. We decided to try a place a few blocks away that had been recommended by one of the gem dealers--the Casa do Ouvidor, a handsome restaurant with wrought-iron balconies overlooking one of the main streets in town. The specialties of the house were local dishes that looked quite different from the food we’d had in Rio, and we chose something called tutu a mineira --beans Minas style--mostly because I liked the sound of the name. This turned out to be a delicious plate of black beans served with pork chops and sausage, a kind of cabbage called couve and a fried egg. After washing it all down with cold draft beer, we practically rolled out of the restaurant.

Few citizens of Ouro Preto speak English, but that afternoon we met a gem dealer who did, and she recommended the services of her English-speaking husband, Pedro Paulo Pinto, as a guide to the city. An aspiring travel agent who studied history at the university, Pinto showed us around for the rest of the day. We started in the main square, the Praca Tiradentes, where stands a statue of the great Brazilian revolutionary, Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier. Tiradentes, meaning “Tooth Puller,” is Xavier’s nickname (he was a dentist). Though born in the village now called Tiradentes, between Ouro Preto and Rio, Xavier was a member of the “Inconfidentes,” a group of 18th-Century intellectuals and poets in Ouro Preto which launched one of Brazil’s first revolts against the Portuguese.

Unfortunately for Tiradentes, the revolt was quickly put down. His co-conspirators were jailed or exiled, and he was imprisoned and later drawn and quartered and decapitated. In the Museu da Inconfidencia, just across the square from his statue, we saw the pike on which Tiradentes’ head was displayed after his death, as a warning to other would-be rebels. Not everything in the museum is so grisly, though. There are also exhibits of furniture from the time of the Inconfidentes and many architectural drawings and sculptures by Aleijadinho and Atiade. Later, we visited a graceful, arched bridge, famous all over Brazil, called the Marilia. It is named after the girlfriend of Tomas Antonio Gonzaga, the Inconfidentes’ leading poet, who immortalized her and the bridge in verse.

The cultural community in Ouro Preto today remains vital. Such well-known Brazilian painters as Carlos Bracher, Fernando Luchesi and Carlos Scliar live in the city, as do whole families of more anonymous artists, who sculpt the same soapstone that Aleijadinho carved and who set up displays of their wares in the square outside the Pousada do Mondego. Poets are still held in high esteem, too, and it’s not uncommon for local residents to use the phrase meu poeta , my poet, as a term of endearment. (Perhaps this is why the American poet Elizabeth Bishop made her home here for some years, restoring a colonial house.)

Our first day in Ouro Preto ended as splendidly as it had begun. As we huffed and puffed back up the cobblestone lanes toward our pousada , the sun began to set, turning the buildings around us deep gold and filling the sky with intense, diffused colors of liquid crayons. We said goodby to our guide over caipirinhas at a little bar along the way. Caipirinhas are delicious but potent drinks of fresh lime juice and cachaca, the Brazilian sugar-cane liquor, and by the time we’d had a couple of rounds, Tom and I decided that we’d done about enough for one day. We bought a pizza from a cafe around the corner--thanks to the many Italian immigrants to Brazil, pizza is ubiquitous--and took it back to the pousada , where we sank into bed to snack and read.

For the next four days we explored the city on our own. Ouro Preto boasts 13 churches, and we visited every one. All were constructed in the 18th Century, and they are considered to be the finest examples of baroque architecture in the country. Brazilian baroque is different from the European version--simpler, and to my eye more beautiful. The churches of Ouro Preto were built by “brotherhoods” similar to medieval trade guilds--groups made up not just of architects and artists but also of miners, shopkeepers, musicians and so on. Their magnificence reflects the rivalry between the different brotherhoods, each of which wished to be seen as more pious than its competitors.

Along with Sao Francisco de Assis, my favorite church was that of Santa Efigenia dos Pretos, built by the local black slave community in 1742 and financed by money from the mine of Chico Rey, Brazil’s first abolitionist. Rey was an African chieftain who was sold into slavery along with his tribe and shipped to Ouro Preto to work in the mines. According to local lore, slaves here were allowed to keep a tiny percentage of the gold they dug, and Chico Rey and his tribe eventually managed to buy not only their freedom, but the entire mine. In thanksgiving, they built the church and dedicated it to St. Efigenia, who was the queen of Nubia.

Larger than the church of Sao Francisco, Santa Efigenia commands a high hill, its height accentuated by tall, angular bell towers. In the mid-1800s, it is said that ghosts emanated from the walls of the church, and some locals still believe it to be haunted. Perhaps to placate the spirits, the faithful leave offerings of candles, food and flowers on the ornate central altar in front of statues of the black saints Benedito and Antonio de Nolo.

We missed Ouro Preto’s two main citywide celebrations. One is the annual Congado festival on May 13, the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in 1888. In the old days, freed slaves would elect a king and queen and wear silk and velvet costumes. According to our guide Pinto, it’s still a good party. The other special occasion is Semana Santa, or Holy Week, the week before Easter, when the main streets of the town are decorated with what look like patterned carpets but are actually a combination of flower petals and colored sawdust. Children dress as angels and their mothers hang homemade lace from their balconies, as processions of holy relics make their way down the flowered streets.

NIGHT LIFE IN OURO Preto is civilized and rather conversational in tone. There are no blaring discos or packed bars. Instead, the streets are filled with strolling couples or small groups of friends, and it is not uncommon to see people reading or sketching on the steps outside some well-lighted pizzeria. Most of the younger citizens seem to spend their evenings sitting in cafes discussing the day’s events.

On one moonlit stroll, we heard music coming from a nearby hill and, following its sound, came upon the old Teatro Municipal, in which a rehearsal for a concert of baroque chamber music was in progress. We were invited in, and as we sat in the red velvet seats, listening to the delicate sound of flutes and violins surround us, I found myself thinking that this must have been what an evening’s entertainment was like when the theater first opened in 1769.

On our last morning in Ouro Preto, before we took a bus back to Belo Horizonte, I realized that I wanted to buy a keepsake. Since we hadn’t bought any gems, we went into Brazil Gemas, a shop on the Praca Tiradentes, for one more look. Among a vast assortment of loose stones, a pair of perfectly matched aquamarines and another of imperial topazes caught my eye.

“We can set them in gold for you,” the manager told me when he noticed my interest. “You can draw us a picture of what you want.” I replied that, unfortunately, I had waited too long, and we were due to leave town in three hours. “No problem,” he answered. So I drew a simple sketch, and when I came back slightly less than three hours later, an exquisitely fashioned pair of aquamarine-and-topaz earrings awaited me. Remarkably, I was charged only for the gold and the gems--the workmanship was gratis. The cost was about $475 for four carats of good-quality aquamarine and seven carats of imperial topaz in a beautiful custom-made setting. When I went to the back room to thank the craftsman who had made the earrings, he showed me his handmade tools. The fact that they were so basic made me appreciate his artistry even more.

We made the bus with time to spare. The road from Ouro Preto to Belo Horizonte is narrow, and the bus stops frequently to pick up or discharge passengers. But it was a comfortable, air-conditioned trip--and as the bus rumbled quietly along, I drifted off to sleep and dreamed about a lost city of gold and the riches we had found there.

GUIDEBOOK: A Jewel of a Place

Telephone numbers and prices: The country code for Brazil is 55. The city code for Ouro Preto is 31 from outside the country, 031 from within. All prices are approximate and are computed at a rate of 5,500 cruzeiros to the dollar. Hotel rates are for a double room for one night.

Getting there: Varig flies nonstop from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro on Thursdays and Fridays and offers connecting flights other days. United Airlines and VASP also have frequent connecting flights. From Rio, VASP, Varig and Transbrasil have daily continuing flights to Belo Horizonte, the airport nearest Ouro Preto. A fourth Brazilian carrier, Cruzeiro do Sul, makes the flight several times a week. The one-hour flight costs $150 round trip. To get to Ouro Preto, rent a car in Belo Horizonte or take one of the frequent buses that go there from Belo. The 2 1/2-hour bus trip costs $6 round trip. It is also possible to take a bus from Rio to Belo. There are several daily departures, but the most comfortable are the air-conditioned, well-maintained, first-class leitos , or sleepers, that leave at night and arrive in Belo in the morning. It is necessary to reserve a seat (these resemble first-class airplane seats, complete with white linen and footrests), which can be done through a travel agent or hotel concierge in Rio. The seven-hour journey costs $60 round trip.

Where to stay: The Pousada do Mondego, Largo de Coimbra 38, telephone 551-2040, fax 551-3094, is the most elegant hotel in town, with 20 immaculate rooms with private baths. Rates: $100-$120, including breakfast. Other good accommodations: Pouso Chico Rey, Rua Brigideiro Mosqueira 90, tel. 551-1274, a charming pousada that has only four antique-filled doubles (reserve way in advance). Rates: $65-$85. Also, Luxor Pousada, Rua Alfredo Baeta 10, tel. 551-2244, which is in a historic building and has an excellent restaurant. Rate: $125. There is another wonderful pousada in Tiradentes, about 50 miles from Ouro Preto, called the Hotel Solar da Ponte, Praca das Merces, tel. (32) 355-1255. Occupying a converted colonial mansion, it is owned by an Englishman, John Parsons, and his Brazilian wife, Ana Maria. She is a professor of Brazilian history in Ouro Preto, and the two of them are a great source of information on the entire area. Rate: $100.

Where to eat: Casa do Ouvidor, 42 Rua Conde de Bobadella, tel. 551-2141. Also recommended: Calabuoco, 132 Rua Conde de Bobadella, tel. 551-1222; Casa Grande, 84 Praca Tiradentes, tel. 551-2976; Taberna Luxor, 10 Rua Doctor Alfredo Baeta, tel. 551-2699.

What to see: Churches: Igrejo de Sao Francisco de Assis, Rua do Ouvidor, open from 8 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; Igrejo de Santa Efigenia dos Pretos, Ladeira de Santa Efigenia, open 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday through Sunday. Museu da Inconfidencia, Praca Tiradentes, open noon to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Teatro Municipal, Rua Conde de Bobadella, open daily 1 to 5 p.m.

Hiring a guide: Information on Ouro Preto is hard to find in English-language guidebooks, but official English-speaking guides to Ouro Preto may be hired, for about $20 a day, through the tourist office on the Praca Tiradentes. Our own guide, Pedro Paulo Pinto, whom I highly recommend, may be contacted at 551-1706, or write to him at Rua Resende 53, Ouro Preto, MG 35400, Brazil.

Buying gems: Gem dealers are seemingly everywhere on the streets. Unless you know gems yourself, though, it’s probably better not to buy more expensive stones from these free-lancers. There are several reputable gem stores on the Praca Tiradentes. Two of the best are Amsterdam Sauer and the slightly less expensive Brazil Gemas. Gem prices vary widely, depending on the variety and quality of the stone, but it is possible to find some gems for $10 or $20, just as it is possible to spend many thousands of dollars on others. In general, though, prices do seem to be about half what they are at major jewelry stores in Rio.