6 Best Sights in Diamantina, Minas Gerais

João Fernandes de Oliveira, one of the wealthiest individuals in colonial Brazil, had the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel built as a gift to his mistress, Chica da Silva, a former slave. There are two tales that attempt to explain the bell tower built at the back of the 1751 structure. The first is that da Silva ordered it to be built there so that the ringing wouldn't disturb her. The other is that the construction would allow her to attend Mass, as a law at the time forbade slaves to go "beyond the towers." The altar has gold-leaf paneling, and the organ has 514 pipes.

One of Brazil's wealthiest and most famous former slaves, Chica da Silva (also spelled Xica da Silva), lived in this colonial house with her partner, João Fernandes de Oliveira, a Portuguese diamond dealer, from 1763 to 1771. Chica da Silva's story is tied to the creation of Diamantina (then known as Arraial do Tijuco) and the heyday of diamond mining in the area. The house, now part of the state's architectural heritage, contains colonial furniture and the façade of Chica's private chapel. A permanent art exhibit shows Chica in torrid poses and tawdry clothes as a personification of the Seven Deadly Sins.

The humble childhood home of one of Brazil's most important 20th-century presidents—he was responsible for the construction of Brasília—is now a small museum.

The city's Diamond Museum, in a building that dates from 1789, displays equipment used in colonial-period mines. The items on exhibit here include instruments made to torture slaves and sacred art from the 16th to the 19th century. There are guided tours of the rooms where diamonds were classified and separated.

On Rua da Glória, there's a covered wooden footbridge that connects the second stories of two buildings that once served as the headquarters of the colonial governors. The houses, originally built around 1876, were initially the residence of young nuns and the idea behind the bridge was to keep the women away from the prying eyes of passing men when they crossed the road. It's now a popular Diamantina postcard.