Estrada Real
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Estrada Real was an epithet applied to the roads built and maintained by the Portuguese Crown both in Portugal itself and in the Portuguese overseas territories.
Royal Road marker in Brazil between the towns of Tiradentes and São João del-Rei, both in the state of Minas Gerais
Caminho do Proença in Vila Rica, by Johann Moritz Rugendas
Congonhas
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Congonhas is a municipality in central Minas Gerais, Brazil. Its municipal seat grew during the gold rush of the early eighteenth century and became a regional pilgrimage center after construction of
Estrada Real
…Lisbon. The original road — Caminho Velho — began in Paraty and went north through the towns of São João del-Rei, Tiradentes, Coronel Xavier Chaves, Congonhas, Itatiaia (today a district of Ouro Branco) and, ultimately, Vila Rica (today's Ouro Preto). Later, the distance to Ouro Preto was shortened by the…
Nossa Senhora da Conceição Church and part of the municipal seat
Church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos, built by the Black community of colonial Congonhas
Congonhas in 1880, photographed by Marc Ferrez
View across the municipal seat