2 Best Sights in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Built in 1898, the French-style Liberdade Palace is the former headquarters of the Minas Gerais government. Today, it is the main venue of the Cultural Complex Praça da Liberdade. Of note are the gardens by Paul Villon, the Louis XV–style banquet room, the main staircase brought from Belgium, the paintings in Noble Hall, and a panel by Antônio Pereira.

This colonial site dating from the 1780s has had many uses: a prison, a tax collection center, and a coinage house, among others. It contains the foundry that minted coins of the gold-rush period and has exhibits of coins and period furniture. The building is considered one of the best examples of Brazilian colonial architecture. The beautiful park at the back of the building snakes past a waterfall and alongside a river to the other side of town.