| Sabará - Museum - Gold Museum |
Gold Museum |
Gold Museum was created to tell the history of the mining, which was the main
activity during the 18th and 19th centuries, in Minas Gerais. Today, it works where formerly were Intendência House and
Fundição da Vila Real de Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Sabará, public organ that should be installed on each place where gold was found.
The building was one of the first to be built in the city and get distinguished for
keeping itself in activity during all the gold cycle. Anyone who had found gold should take it to those houses to balance and cast it into bars.
Then, the bars were registered and a certificate, which was worth some money, was emitted.
When Casa de Intendência e Fundição was deactivated, the small palace was then used
as residence and, subsequently, a high school, which functioned for a hundred years. In 1940, the construction was bought by Companhia
Belgo-Mineira and donated to “Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional”, which had the initiative of restoring it and turn it into
Museu do Ouro, inaugurated on 1946, May 16th. By the way, the museum is also taken as one of the oldest in Minas Gerais.
The patrimony is composed by furniture of the 18th and 19th century,
with strong portuguese references, silverware and instruments used in the extraction and foundry of gold at that time. There are scale models
which allow visitors to visualize the way the metal was extracted and handled and how the objects were placed in the building. One of the
attractions is a press dated from 1670, used in the foundry, used to mark gold bars with the portuguese seal.
Address: Rua da Intendência, no number - Downtown
Phone: 55-31-3671-1848 |
Presentation
