Tiradentes

Gold was found on the slopes of the Serra de São José in 1702 by the bandeirante João de Siqueira Afonso, and the mining camp that grew up became known as the Arraial Velho de Santo Antônio. In 1718 it was raised to a town, the Vila de São José do Rio das Mortes, later called São José del-Rei, carved out of the territory of its larger neighbour São João del-Rei, with the Rio das Mortes as the boundary between them. Disputes over that boundary ran until a royal decision in 1755.

Gold paid for the Matriz de Santo Antônio, begun around 1710 and largely complete by 1732, and for fountains, churches and a council hall. Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, the "Tiradentes" of the Inconfidência Mineira, was born nearby, and the house of the priest known as Padre Toledo was one of the places where the conspirators of 1789 met. When the gold ran out the town declined; in 1848 it was even abolished and merged into São João del-Rei, before being restored a year later.

In 1881 the narrow-gauge Oeste de Minas railway arrived, opened in the presence of Emperor Pedro II, and in 1889 the town took the name of its hero. The colonial centre survived largely intact, and Brazilian modernist writers and artists, among them Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade and Tarsila do Amaral, visited on their way to Ouro Preto. Since the late 1990s its festivals and restaurants have made it one of the leading destinations for cultural tourism in Brazil.

The town's culture is built on its preserved colonial centre, religious traditions, crafts, food and festivals of national reach. Holy Week is the high point of the religious year: the parish and its old brotherhoods organise processions and solemn services, decorate the streets with carpets and perform music of Portuguese-Brazilian tradition, some of it centuries old.

Since 1998 the town has hosted the Mostra de Cinema de Tiradentes, one of the most important film festivals in Brazil, which shows only Brazilian films, is free to the public and gives no cash prizes. The Festival de Cultura e Gastronomia, held each August since the same year, made the town a pioneer of food festivals in Brazil, and a photography festival has been held yearly since 2004.

Crafts are a living trade. Many of the crafts sold in town are made in the nearby village of Bichinho, where workshops sell directly to visitors. The pace of life is unhurried, and the church calendar still sets much of the town's rhythm despite the weekend crowds.

About 7,700 people lived in the municipality at the 2022 census, a small municipality. It belongs to the regional orbit of São João del-Rei, the larger town nearby, and the two are linked by road and by the old railway.

Tourism is the economy. Inns, restaurants, craft and sweet shops, guides and carriage drivers depend on visitors, most of whom come at weekends and on holidays from Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The result is a town of two rhythms: crowded and lively at weekends, quiet midweek.

Many of the colonial houses in the old town are now inns, restaurants and shops, and much of the craftwork they sell comes from workshops in the nearby village of Bichinho. At weekends the steam train brings day visitors from São João del-Rei. The Serra de São José behind the town is protected as an environmental area, partly to safeguard its water sources.

Tiradentes has made food its calling card. The town is one of the most important places to eat in Minas Gerais, combining comida mineira de raiz — the traditional farmhouse cooking of the state — with contemporary cooking by well-known chefs. Restaurants range from simple places cooking on wood-fired stoves to bistros in restored colonial houses.

The classics are those of Minas: feijão tropeiro, beans tossed with cassava flour, bacon, sausage and egg; tutu, a thick purée of beans; frango com quiabo, chicken with okra served with angu, soft cornmeal; pork in many forms; couve, finely shredded collard greens; and pão de queijo, the small cheese breads of the state. Desserts are sugary preserves, doce de leite and goiabada, guava paste, often eaten with fresh cheese.

Many shops in the old town sell Minas sweets, and many also sell bottles of artisanal cachaça from the stills of Minas. The Festival de Cultura e Gastronomia each August brings chefs from Brazil and abroad together with local producers for classes, dinners and tastings, and fills the town for the duration.