Praça Tiradentes

Sloping main square named after the executed leader of the failed independence movement

The town's central square sits on a steep slope between two of its most important buildings: the Museu da Inconfidência at the lower end and the old governor's palace (now the School of Mines) at the upper. A statue of Tiradentes stands in the middle. From here, the main streets fan out and climb the hillsides to the various churches.

This is where every visit starts and where evenings end. Cafés and restaurants line the edges, locals sit on the steps, and the square fills with students from the federal university whose dormitories — the repúblicas — occupy many of the surrounding colonial mansions.

things to do sight
A story
The square is named for Joaquim José da Silva Xavier — nicknamed Tiradentes, "the tooth-puller," for his trade as a dentist. He led the 1789 Inconfidência Mineira, a plot to break free from Portugal. The conspiracy was betrayed, Tiradentes was hanged in Rio in 1792, his body quartered, and the pieces displayed along the road to Ouro Preto as a warning. A century later he became Brazil's first national hero.