Chico Preto Hostel

You’ve found yourself at our host’s hostel, between two of the oldest churches in town. It too has its own delightful history.

“Our hostel has the privilege to be in between two important churches, no, is the Padre Faria Church and the Santa Efigenia Church. Chico Preto Hostel is one of the oldest houses in Ouro Preto, it is the only one you’ll see, the whole outside, the wall is made of stones. Those stones are rotten rocks, you know, it’s called fileto. And the gold used to came agregate on that stone. That’s why it was made with those, kind of stones.”

Though that sounds a little dodgy, rotten rock is merely a translation of an old term. These rocks were the ones that the gold in the mines would attach to. So, the gold would need to be separated from these rotten rocks to be processed. Who knows how much gold they could have missed? Marcelo’s hostel could be made of gold!

“Hahaha! I wish, I wish. And the name Chico Preto is because in the past when I bought this house, and the guy who lived here [he] was called, Chico Preto. And he used to make toys—”

Ah, that’s toys everybody not toes.

“For the kids, and they repair toys, no? He was a very famous and lot loved guy, no? That’s why I decide to keep the name Chico Preto, to the hostel. It’s a small hostel, and the idea is that once you are inside you just feel at home, you know. It’s an old casa from Minas Geris, no, old house from Minas Geris state, you know.”

Marcelo also mentioned the Padre Faria Church. One of the oldest in town and just a short walk down the hill on this street.

“If you walk down you have that Padre Faria church that is very beautiful, is from the beginning of the town. It’s an old one. They say that the gold from there came from underneath their own church, you know, that they dig there and they have tunnels. They say that they have a tunnel connect that church to Pilar Church. I don’t believe, because it’s too far, but maybe it’s possible because there are kilometers and kilometers of tunnels. And most of them you don’t even know where they are. There’s a guy now trying to put all the mines in a book, you know, like… but it’s quite difficult because there are many, many we just don’t know, no?

Then this Padre Faria, was also someone who had the piece [taste?] for exploiting gold, you know exploring gold. So, he was a priest, but he was an adventurer as well, like many of those priests at that time, no? Church was like a coverage, but they had that business as well. And they…”

Get some on the side?

“Of course, of course…”

This brings us to the end of our tour with our amazing storyteller and guide, Marcelo. Thank you so much for everything, Marcelo.

“Of course, of course, you are all very welcome here.”

Yes, you’re all welcome at Chico Preto Hostel. It’s a place that we can highly recommend. From here, you might want to wonder to Padre Faria church, just down the hill, or perhaps to the next parallel street over to see one of the mines.

And please, if you really enjoyed this tour, we hope you’ll show your appreciation by donating to Story City using the donate button at the bottom of this page of the app. Every donation helps us to make more free tours for you to do around the world.

Please enjoy the rest of your visit to Ouro Preto. We’ll see you next time.