Browse / Brazil / Minas Gerais / Congonhas
Congonhas
Minas Geraistown
Congonhas
Total population
52,890
Founded
1938
Demographic figures from IBGE. Overview below cites Wikipedia and may reference a different year.
City facts
Facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Overview
Congonhas is a municipality in central Minas Gerais, Brazil. Its municipal seat grew during the gold rush of the early eighteenth century and became a regional pilgrimage center after construction of the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos began in 1757. The municipality covers 304.067 km2 (117.401 sq mi) and had 52,890 residents in the 2022 census.
Read more on WikipediaHistory & geography
History
Settlement began around 1700 as gold mining spread through central Minas Gerais. Mining camps grew beside streams and along roads used by people and goods moving between the mining districts. The present municipality grew from three colonial settlements: Congonhas do Campo, Soledade, now Lobo Leite, and Redondo, now Alto Maranhão. All three stood along routes through the mining country of central Minas Gerais. Congonhas do Campo grew on the banks of the Ribeirão das Congonhas, later called the Maranhão River. Gold was worked in the watercourses and on nearby slopes, largely with enslaved labor. Congonhas do Campo became a district on 6 November 1746 and remained part of Ouro Preto. The Irmandade de Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Congonhas do Campo included enslaved and free Black members and organized worship around devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary. It belonged to a wider group of Black Catholic confraternities established in the parishes around Vila Rica. Congonhas had a Rosário chaplain by 1748. In 1784, the brotherhood hired João Nepomuceno Correia de Castro to paint the chapel ceiling and carry out other work on the building. The site is now within the municipality of Ouro Preto, although nineteenth-century writing often referred to it as being at Congonhas do Campo. The Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil reached Congonhas in 1914. The station opened on 14 November. By 1917, the Paraopeba line connected the town with Belo Horizonte and with railway routes toward Rio de Janeiro. Congonhas do Campo remained a district of Ouro Preto until 1923, when it was transferred to Queluz, later renamed Conselheiro Lafaiete. It became a municipality on 17 December 1938, initially comprising Congonhas do Campo and Lobo Leite. Federal protection of the older town followed soon…
Geography
Congonhas covers in central Minas Gerais. It borders Belo Vale and Ouro Preto to the north, Ouro Preto and Ouro Branco to the east, Conselheiro Lafaiete and São Brás do Suaçuí to the south, and Jeceaba to the west. The municipality has three districts: Congonhas, which contains the municipal seat, Alto Maranhão, and Lobo Leite. Alto Maranhão and Lobo Leite grew from Redondo and Soledade, two colonial mining settlements that later became part of Congonhas. The district became part of Congonhas do Campo in 1943. Lobo Leite grew from the mining settlement of Soledade. It became part of Congonhas do Campo when the municipality was established in 1938. A railway station opened at Lobo Leite in 1886 on the line later operated by the Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil. Passenger service ended, but freight trains continue to use the line. The Caminho Velho branch of the Estrada Real also passes through the district. The municipal seat spreads across hilly ground on the two sides of the Maranhão River. Congonhas lies at the southwestern edge of the Iron Quadrangle, where ridges and rounded hills rise above narrow river valleys. The underlying rocks include iron formations, schists, phyllites and granitoids. These iron-bearing rocks contain the ore deposits worked around the municipality, including the Casa de Pedra mine about from the town. The Maranhão River drains most of the municipality and crosses the urban area before joining the Paraopeba River. The Paraopeba runs along the western side of Congonhas and belongs to the São Francisco River basin. The Santo Antônio, Goiabeiras and Soledade streams flow into the Maranhão within the municipality. {{Weather box/concise C | location = Congonhas | 25 | 26 | 25 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 21 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 24 | 25 | 17 | 17 | 17 |…
Excerpted from the corresponding Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA).
Geography
Coordinates & boundaries from the US Census TIGER/Line shapefiles.
Climate
Air quality
Walkability
Amenities nearby
Wildlife & biodiversity
Earthquake history
Photos
Sights & places nearby
Notable people from here
People born within ~10 km, from Wikidata (CC0). Click any name for their Wikipedia article.
Nearby places in Minas Gerais
- Santana dos Montes22.4 mi away · pop. 3,469
- Caranaíba26.8 mi away · pop. 2,933
- Carandaí31.3 mi away · pop. 23,812
- Lamim31.8 mi away · pop. 3,184
- Crucilândia32.3 mi away · pop. 5,434
- Capela Nova33 mi away · pop. 4,362
- Rio Espera34.9 mi away · pop. 5,429
- Raposos37.1 mi away · pop. 16,279
- Sarzedo37.3 mi away · pop. 36,844
- Mário Campos37.7 mi away · pop. 15,900
- Parque Duval de Barros38.3 mi away
- Vitorinos39.3 mi away
Geography & sun
Elevation, sunrise/sunset and daylight from Open-Meteo. Solar climatology from NASA POWER.
Nearby airports
Public attention
Pageview totals from the Wikimedia Pageviews API.
Books about Congonhas
Search results from Open Library.
Recent natural events nearby
Ground air-quality sensors
Recently spotted species
Events
Gallery
Official Identifiers
IBGE — Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
- IBGE code
- 3118007
- UF
- MG
- Mesorregião
- Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte
- Microrregião
- Conselheiro Lafaiete
servicodados.ibge.gov.br
Sources
- • Wikipedia
- • Wikidata
- • Open-Meteo / sunrise-sunset.org
- • Wikipedia Pageviews API
- • Open Library
- • Wikidata SPARQL (CC0) — population, area, elevation, inception, head of government, Commons image
- • IBGE — Brazilian national statistics, via servicodados.ibge.gov.br (official municipal code, UF, mesorregião, microrregião, region)
- • IBGE — Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics — servicodados.ibge.gov.br