Baroque stone
Carved quartzite.
Filipo Tardim — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Paulo SP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Paulo SP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Chafariz de São José is one of the finest and grandest colonial fountains in Brazil, built in Tiradentes in 1749 in the baroque style, of quartzite with four façades. It is fed by the water of the Bosque da Mãe d'Água forest reserve behind it, at the foot of the Serra de São José. For centuries women gathered here to wash clothes and fetch water, and enslaved people used it in their hours of rest to sing and dance, as an Irish traveller recorded in the 19th century. In 1924 the painter Tarsila do Amaral drew it during the «Modernist Caravan» journey. The national heritage body listed it with the Tiradentes architectural ensemble in 1938 and on its own in 1949, its bicentenary. The visit is free.
Carved quartzite.
From the Mãe d'Água wood.
Mountain backdrop.
At the foot of the Serra de São José, Tiradentes
In 1749; it has been national heritage since 1938, and the visit is free.
