Lauro Müller is a small city in the coal-mining heartland of southern Santa Catarina, sitting at the foot of the Serra Geral escarpment. The city exists because of coal — the British started mining here in 1842, making this one of Brazil's earliest industrial sites — and the landscape exists because of geology: the escarpment drops dramatically away from the high plateau of Santa Catarina to the coastal lowlands below.
The Serra do Rio do Rastro is the main reason to come here. The road climbs the escarpment in a series of tight switchbacks cut directly into the rock face, threading through dense Atlantic Forest with waterfalls dropping alongside it — genuinely spectacular, and one of the great mountain drives in South America.
Back in town, the Castelo de Laje is the most distinctive building — a building modelled on a Swiss castle, constructed between 1917 and 1919 by industrialist Henrique Laje. Near the base of the serra, the Grotto of the Amaral is accessible via the old road toward Orleans.
The city marks several festivals through the year, of which the Festa de Santa Bárbara in December — patron saint of miners, celebrated for over 65 years — is the most distinctive. Restaurants in town tend toward Italian food, reflecting the area's immigrant heritage from the late 19th century.