Ouro Preto (from Portuguese, Black Gold) is a town in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is at the geographic coordinates 20°17′15″S 43°30′29″W / 20.28750°S 43.50806°W. It is at an altitude of 1116 meters on the slope of a rocky hill. In 2010, there were about 70,227 people living there.
Ouro Preto had a lot of gold in the ground. The gold was taken by Portuguese colonists, who used slave labor.
Ouro Preto was founded in 1711 by combining several villages. In the same year it became the headquarters of the village council, with the appointment of Vila Rica (Villa Rica). In the year 1720, Ouro Preto was chosen as the new capital of Minas Gerais. In 1823, the town was upgraded to being a city as the designation of Ouro Preto. In 1839 he created the School of Pharmacy and in 1876 the School of Mines. It was the capital of the province and later the state of Minas Gerais until 1897.
It was the first Brazilian city to be declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Historical and Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 1980.
Population: Data from the 2010 Census (IBGE)
The city is linked by good roads to:
Bordering municipalities are:
Ouro Preto has a humid subtropical climate (Cwa, according to the Köppen climate classification), with warm and humid summers and mild, dry winters.
| Climate data for Ouro Preto, Brazil | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 28.2 (82.8) |
28.5 (83.3) |
28.5 (83.3) |
27.1 (80.8) |
25.5 (77.9) |
24.5 (76.1) |
24.7 (76.5) |
25.9 (78.6) |
26.8 (80.2) |
27.4 (81.3) |
27.5 (81.5) |
27.3 (81.1) |
26.8 (80.3) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 17.6 (63.7) |
17.7 (63.9) |
16.8 (62.2) |
15 (59) |
12.3 (54.1) |
10.2 (50.4) |
9.8 (49.6) |
11.1 (52.0) |
13.8 (56.8) |
16 (61) |
16.8 (62.2) |
17.2 (63.0) |
14.5 (58.2) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 252 (9.9) |
184.9 (7.28) |
155.5 (6.12) |
69.2 (2.72) |
27.7 (1.09) |
12.3 (0.48) |
10.3 (0.41) |
11.8 (0.46) |
48.7 (1.92) |
123.7 (4.87) |
202.6 (7.98) |
305.8 (12.04) |
1,404.5 (55.27) |
| Source: Tempo Agora. | |||||||||||||
Ouro Preto has rocky fields, woods of Araucaria (Pinhais), and forests. Most plant life in Ouro Preto is brushland.
