Igreja de NS do Carmo Minas Gerais

Adorned with rich, golden carvings and a gilded organ made in Diamantina, this is the town’s most opulent church. Constructed between 1760 and 1765, its tower was reputedly built at the rear at the request of locally renowned personage Chica da Silva, so that she might sit in the front pews (Portuguese law at the time denied blacks the right to pass 'beyond the belltower').