Natural stone in the built heritage of the interior of Brazil: the use of stone in Minas Gerais

Abstract

Abstract The cultural heritage of Brazil built with natural stone is expressive and shows a great variety of rock types. The main differences between rock types are found when a comparison is made between the buildings located in the coastal zone and those located inland. In historical cities located on the coast, European limestones were widely used. Within the Brazilian interior, especially in the current State of Minas Gerais, a large number of historic buildings can be noticed. In this State, despite the large volumes of granites and gneisses and other less common rock types such as gabbros, basalts and sandstones, steatite and different types of schist, beside quartzites, were the rock types most commonly used in the construction of those 18th- and 19th-century buildings. This paper focuses on the extent and quality based on the use of steatites and schists in historic buildings in Brazil, which is part of a research project in progress. Assembled data justifies the inclusion of these rocks in the database on the rocks of world cultural heritage. The advancement of these studies may contribute to the maintenance and preservation of this heritage and the appropriate new uses of these rocks, as well as to propose some of them as Global Heritage Stone Resource for their international recognition.