Sabara

Sabara was one of the earliest gold settlements in Minas and is now effectively a suburb of Belo Horizonte, which means its colonial fabric sits in an ordinary working town rather than a preserved one. The Nossa Senhora do O chapel of 1717 is the striking piece: its interior is painted with chinoiserie panels in red and gold, the work of artists using Macanese and Chinese motifs that reached Brazil through the Portuguese Asian trade, and there is nothing else quite like it in the region. The Nossa Senhora do Carmo has Aleijadinho work. And the church of Nossa Senhora da Conceicao do Pompeu, begun in the 1770s, was never finished - the walls stand roofless with the doorway complete and nothing behind it, abandoned when the gold gave out.

What you actually see

• Chinoiserie in a 1717 chapel - red and gold Asian motifs at Nossa Senhora do O.
• An unfinished church - roofless walls left when the gold ran out.
• Aleijadinho work at the Carmo - carving in the eighteenth-century church.
• Colonial fabric in a working town - not a preserved centre.

When to go

April to September. Half a day, easily done from Belo Horizonte.

Honest expectations

The sites are scattered across a functioning town and walking between them is unremarkable. Church hours are short and several close at lunch. It is much less picturesque than Ouro Preto or Tiradentes and is best treated as a half-day trip.

Nearby

Belo Horizonte is west; Caraca and the Espinhaco are east.