Basílica de Nossa Senhora do Pilar

Gold-saturated baroque interior — over 400 kilograms of gold and silver leaf

If São Francisco is the elegant church, Pilar is the opulent one. The dimly lit interior is one of the most heavily gilded in the Americas: walls, altars, columns, and ceiling all covered in gold leaf, with carved cherubs and saints emerging from every surface.

The church houses a small Museum of Sacred Art in the basement, with reliquaries, processional silver, and one of Brazil's most important collections of colonial religious objects. Don't skip it — the museum is included in the ticket and adds half an hour of genuinely interesting material.

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A story
The church's gilded interior used more than 400 kg of gold and silver leaf, much of it applied directly to the wood carvings of the altar and side chapels. During the late 18th century, when the gold ran out and Ouro Preto's economy collapsed, parishes elsewhere stripped gold from their altars to send to the crown. Pilar's wealth survived only because the local brotherhood was rich enough — and stubborn enough — to refuse.