Sabarabucu

Sabará stands at the meeting of the Sabará and Rio das Velhas rivers in the mining country of Minas Gerais. Its older name, Sabarabuçu, was associated with stories of a mountain of precious stones that drew expeditions into the Brazilian interior. The settlement that arose here became one of the earliest towns of the gold districts, its churches and public buildings reflecting the wealth extracted from the surrounding lands.

The expedition of Fernão Dias Paes reached the region in 1674 in search of mineral riches. Gold discoveries brought a rush of settlers, and after the War of the Emboabas the governor Antônio de Albuquerque established the Vila Real de Nossa Senhora da Conceição do Sabará in 1711. The Portuguese crown installed a foundry to supervise and tax gold; the Sabará foundry operated, with interruptions, from the eighteenth century until 1830. Its parish church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Conception, was inaugurated in 1710.