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The French geologist Gorceix summed up Minas Gerais 150 years ago, when he wrote that the state had "a breast of iron and a heart of gold". Its hills and mountains contain the richest mineral deposits in Brazil, and led to the area being christened "General Mines" when gold and diamonds were found at the end of the seventeenth century. The gold strikes sparked a wave of migration from Rio and Sao Paulo, which lasted a century and shifted the centre of gravity of Brazil's economy and population from the northeast decisively to the south, where it has remained ever since. In the nineteenth century new metals, especially iron, steel and manganese, replaced gold in importance, while the uplands in the west and east proved ideal for coffee production. Land too steep for coffee bushes was converted to cattle pasture, and the luxuriant forests of southern Minas were destroyed and turned into charcoal for smelting. The bare hills are a foretaste of what parts of Amazonia might look like a century from now, and only their strange beauty - sea-like, as waves of them recede into the distance - saves them from seeming desolate.

Mineral wealth still flows from Minas' hills, but iron, bauxite, manganese and steel have superseded the precious metals of colonial times. The eighteenth-century mining settlements of Minas Gerais are now quiet and beautiful colonial towns, with a fraction of the population they had two hundred years ago. They're called as cidades historicas, "the historic cities", and are the only colonial survivals in southern Brazil that stand comparison with the Northeast. Most importantly, they're the repository of a great flowering of Baroque religious art that took place here in the eighteenth century: arte sacra mineira was the finest work of its time in the Americas, and Minas Gerais can lay claim to undisputably the greatest figure in Brazilian cultural history - the mulatto leper sculptor, Aleijadinho , whose magnificent work is scattered throughout the historic cities. The most important of the cidades historicas are Ouro Preto , Mariana and Sabara , all within easy striking distance of Belo Horizonte, and Congonhas , Sao Joao del Rei , Tiradentes and Diamantina , a little further afield.

In more recent times, too, Minas Gerais has been at the centre of Brazilian history. Mineiros have a well-deserved reputation for political cunning, and have produced the two greatest postwar Brazilian presidents: Juscelino Kubitschek , the builder of Brasilia, and Tancredo Neves , midwife to the rebirth of Brazilian democracy in 1985. It was troops from Minas who put down the Sao Paulo revolt against Getulio Vargas' populist regime in the brief civil war of 1932 and, less creditably, the army division in Minas which moved against Rio in 1964 and ensured the success of the military coup.

In keeping with this economic and political force, the capital of Minas, Belo Horizonte , is a thriving, modern metropolis - one of the largest cities in Brazil and second only to Sao Paulo as an industrial centre, which, with its forest of skyscrapers and miles of industrial suburbs, it rather resembles. It lies in the centre of the rich mining and agricultural hinterland that has made the state one of the economic powerhouses of Brazil, running from the coffee estates of western Minas to the mines and cattle pastures of the valley of the Rio Doce , in the east of the state. You can read the area's history in its landscape, the jagged horizons a direct result of decades of mining. The largest cities of the region apart from Belo Horizonte are Juiz de Fora in the south, Governador Valadares to the east, and Uberaba and Uberlandia in the west - all modern and unprepossessing; only Belo Horizonte can honestly be recommended as worth visiting.

All mineiros would agree that the soul of the state lies in the rural areas, in the hill and mountain villages of its vast interior . North of Belo Horizonte, the grassy slopes and occasional patches of forest are swiftly replaced by the stubby trees and savanna of the Planalto Central (leading to Brasilia and central Brazil proper); and in northeastern Minas, by the cactus, rock and perennial drought of the sertao - as desperately poor and economically backward as anywhere in the Northeast proper. The northern part of the state is physically dominated by the hills and highlands of the Serra do Espinhaco , a range which runs north-south through the state like a massive dorsal fin, before petering out south of Belo Horizonte. To its east, the Rio Jequitinhonha sustains life in the parched landscapes of the sertao mineiro; to the west is the flat river valley of the Rio Sao Francisco , which rises here before winding through the interior of the Northeast. The extreme west of Minas Gerais state is taken over by the agricultural Triangulo Mineiro , an extremely wealthy region centred on the city of Uberlandia, with far closer economic ties with Sao Paulo than with the rest of Minas Gerais. Many people in the Triangulo Mineiro believe that the region would benefit from being a separate state, a cause that some local politicians have adopted.

In the southwest of Minas, in fine mountainous scenery near the border with Sao Paulo, are a number of spa towns built around mineral water springs: Sao Lourenco and Caxambu are small and quiet, but Pocos de Caldas is a large and very lively resort. Perhaps the most scenically attractive part of Minas Gerais - certainly the least visited - is the eastern border with Espirito Santo. There's some spectacular walking country in the Caparao national park, where the third highest mountain in Brazil, the 2890-metre Pico da Bandeira , is more easily climbed than its height suggests.

Minas Baroque

There are three distinct phases of Baroque church architecture in Minas . The first , from the beginning of the eighteenth century to about 1730, was very ornate and often involved extravagant carving and gilding, but left exteriors plain; sculpture was formal, with stiff, rather crude statues. The second phase dominated the middle decades of the eighteenth century, with equally extravagant decorations inside, especially around the altar, and the wholesale plastering of everything with gold; the exteriors were now embellished with curlicues and panels in fine Minas soapstone, ceilings were painted and sculpture noticeably more natural, although still highly stylized. The peak was the period from 1760 to 1810, and this third phase of barroco mineiro can be stunning: the exterior decoration was more elaborate, but the interiors are less cluttered, with walls often left plain, and fine carving in both wood and stone. By now, too, the religious sculpture, with its flowing realism, had broken the stylistic bounds that confine most Baroque art.

Travel Details

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Buses

Belo Horizonte to: Belem (1 daily; 50hr); Brasilia (6 daily; 14hr); Campinas (5 daily; 13hr); Campo Grande (4 daily; 23hr); Caxambu (2 daily; 6hr); Congonhas (6 daily; 2hr); Cuiaba (2 daily; 33hr); Curitiba (2 daily; 18hr); Diamantina (6 daily; 6hr); Fortaleza (1 daily; 36hr); Goiania (6 daily; 16hr); Manhuacu (3 daily; 4hr 30min); Manhumirim (2 daily; 5hr); Mariana (7 daily; 2hr); Ouro Preto (17 daily; 2hr); Pocos de Caldas (4 daily; 8hr); Recife (1 daily; 40hr); Rio (20 daily; 8hr); Sabara (every 15min; 30min); Salvador (2 daily; 28hr); Santa Barbara (4 daily; 2hr 30min); Sao Joao del Rei (6 daily; 4hr); Sao Lourenco (2 daily; 6hr); Sao Paulo (15 daily; 12hr); Vitoria (7 daily; 8hr).

Diamantina to: Aracuai (2 daily; 5hr); Belo Horizonte (6 daily; 6hr); Sao Paulo (1 daily; 16hr); Serro (1 daily; 2hr).

Ouro Preto to: Belo Horizonte (17 daily; 2hr); Brasilia (Fri & Sat; 15hr); Mariana (every 20min; 30min); Rio (1 daily; 8hr); Sao Joao del Rei (2 daily; 5hr); Sao Paulo (2 daily; 12hr); Vitoria (1 daily, except Sat; 8hr).

Sao Joao del Rei to: Belo Horizonte (6 daily; 4hr); Caxambu (4 weekly; 3hr); Ouro Preto (2 daily; 5hr); Sao Paulo (2 daily; 8hr); Tres Coracoes (4 daily; 4hr); Vitoria (1 daily; 13hr).

Vitoria to: Belo Horizonte (7 daily; 8hr); Brasilia (1 daily; 22hr); Domingos Martins (13 daily; 1hr); Fortaleza (5 weekly; 36hr); Guarapari (every 30min; 1hr); Manhuacu (2 daily; 4hr); Manhumirim (2 daily; 4hr); Ouro Preto (1 daily; 7hr); Rio (9 daily; 7hr); Salvador (1 daily; 17hr); Santa Teresa (6 Mon-Sat, 3 on Sun; 2hr); Sao Joao del Rei (1 daily; 13hr); Sao Paulo (5 daily; 14hr); Venda Nova (hourly; 3hr).

Trains

Calling at all stations, including Governador Valadares and Itabira:

Belo Horizonte to: Vitoria (daily at 7am; 14hr).

Vitoria to: Belo Horizonte (daily at 6.30am; 14hr).

Explore Minas Gerais

The best way to approach BELO HORIZONTE is from the south, over the magnificent hills of the Serra do Espinhaco, on a road that winds back and forth before finally cresting a ridge where the entire city is set out before you. It's a spectacular sight: Belo Horizonte sprawls in an enormous bowl surrounded by hills, a sea of skyscrapers, favelas and industrial suburbs. From the centre, the jagged rust-coloured skyline of the Serra do Espinhaco, which gave the city its name, is always visible on the horizon - still being transformed by the mines gnawing away at the "breast of iron".

Despite its size and importance, Belo Horizonte is little more than a century old, laid out in the early 1890s on the site of the poor village of Curral del Rey - of which nothing remains - and shaped by the new ideas of "progress" that emerged with the new Republic. Belo Horizonte was the first of Brazil's planned cities and is arguably the most successful. As late as 1945 it had only 100,000 inhabitants; now it has well over twenty times that number (forty times if one includes the city's metropolitan hinterland), an explosive rate of growth even by Latin American standards. It rapidly became the most important pole of economic development in the country, after Sao Paulo, and while it may not be as historic as the rest of the state it's difficult not to be impressed by the city's scale and energy. Moreover, Belo Horizonte's central location and proximity to some of the most important cidades historicas (Sabara is just outside the city, Ouro Preto and Mariana only two hours away by road) make it a good base for exploring Minas Gerais.

The central zone of Belo Horizonte is contained within the inner ring road, the Avenida do Contorno ; the centre is laid out in a grid pattern, crossed by diagonal avenidas, that makes it easy to find your way around on foot, though difficult by car because of a complex system of one-way traffic. The spine of the city is the broad Avenida Afonso Pena , with the Rodoviaria at its northern end, in the heart of the downtown area. Just down from the Rodoviaria along Avenida Afonso Pena is the obelisk in the Praca Sete , the middle of the hotel and financial district and the city's busiest part; a few blocks further down Afonso Pena are the trees and shade of the Parque Municipal . A short distance south of the centre is the Praca da Liberdade , Belo Horizonte's main square, dominated by a double row of imperial palms and important public buildings, while beyond lies the chic area of Savassi , with its restaurants, nightlife and boutiques.

The only places beyond the Contorno you're likely to visit are the artificial lake and Niemeyer buildings of Pampulha , to the north, and the rambling nature reserve of Mangabeiras , on the southern boundary of the city.