Mariana

Mariana lies in the mountains of Minas Gerais beside the Ribeirão do Carmo. Its churches, squares and streets grew from one of the earliest settlements of Brazil’s great gold rush. Gold-bearing streams brought prospectors into the region, and the settlement became a centre of government and religious life in the mining districts.

In 1696 the expedition of Salvador Fernandes Furtado de Mendonça reached the stream and established a camp. The settlement became Vila do Ribeirão do Carmo in 1711, among the first towns created in the mining country. Rivalry over the goldfields had recently produced the War of the Emboabas, prompting the crown to strengthen administration in the interior.

In 1745 João V raised the town to the status of city and named it Mariana in honour of Queen Maria Ana of Austria. That year Pope Benedict XIV created the diocese of Mariana, separating it from the diocese of Rio de Janeiro. Its first bishop, Manuel da Cruz, began his work in 1748. The new diocese was part of a broader reorganisation of the Church in Portuguese America, when São Paulo also received a diocese and Goiás and Cuiabá received prelatures. Mariana’s religious jurisdiction did not exactly coincide with the boundaries of the captaincy. The city’s public buildings and churches reflect the wealth and institutions that grew around the mines.