Discover Mariana: City History, Literature and Landscape

Mariana offers different perspectives on a stay: the Museu de Mariana explores the many facets of the city, the Museu Casa Alphonsus de Guimaraens focuses on a poet’s life, and Parque Estadual do Itacolomi represents a vast natural landscape. This lets you shape your trip around city history, literature and protected nature. When planning, you can weigh these themes according to which interest you most.

City history at the Museu de Mariana

The Museu de Mariana presents, interprets and shares the city’s cultural, social, historical, geographical, geological and political-religious characteristics. Its scope therefore ranges from social and historical contexts to geography and geology. This broad approach looks at Mariana from several angles and differs from a presentation focused on just one era or person. The exhibition content may change over time.

The museum is housed in the Casa do Conde de Assumar. The building once served as the city’s first bishop’s palace. Its current use as a museum and its former use as a bishop’s palace are distinct chapters in the history of the house. This gives the multifaceted city museum a tangible architectural connection, while its subject matter extends beyond the building’s former function.

Alphonsus de Guimaraens: House, exhibition and collection

The Museu Casa Alphonsus de Guimaraens focuses on a life story. It opened in 1987 in the house where the poet lived with his family from 1913 to 1921, including his wife and children. The house is in Mariana’s historic centre. The poet’s time living there and the museum’s later opening mark two different periods.

The museum includes the permanent exhibition “Alphonsus de Guimaraens, Poeta do Luar”, which opened in June 2018. The collection comprises the writer’s personal belongings and photographs, his private library, written documents, and objects from his work as a judge. Together, these parts of the collection reveal private, literary and professional aspects of his life. Unlike the Museu de Mariana, which covers many facets of the city, this museum focuses on one person.

Parque Estadual do Itacolomi

Parque Estadual do Itacolomi adds a landscape perspective. The park covers 5,971 hectares between Ouro Preto and Mariana. It protects remnants of the Atlantic Forest and high-altitude grasslands, and has well-maintained hiking trails with signs in Portuguese. Its ecosystems and trails give the landscape a character of its own, distinct from the museums’ themes. The Portuguese-language signs are a practical detail to consider when planning hikes.

Weighing up cultural and landscape highlights

The themes can be compared by their scope: the Museu de Mariana explores the city from many different angles, the Museu Casa Alphonsus de Guimaraens brings a poet’s life to light through his home and collection, and Itacolomi focuses on protected landscapes and hiking trails. When planning together, including with children, these distinctions can help get different interests into the conversation. When looking for a holiday rental in Mariana, you can then define your preferred mix of experiences more clearly: should city history, literature or landscape be the deciding factor?

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Passa-Vinte, Delfinópolis, Paraisópolis, Sacramento, Marliéria, Francisco Sá, Rio Preto, Guaxupé.

For the broader travel overview: Minas Gerais.