Conceição

Conceição do Mato Dentro lies among the hills of Minas Gerais, in a region settled during the eighteenth-century gold rush. In 1702 Gabriel Ponce de Leon built a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Conception near gold workings on the Ribeirão Santo Antônio and its tributaries. A settlement grew around the chapel, and its churches and substantial buildings reflect the prosperity that mining brought to the community.