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Situated at the only entrance to the park is the Santuario do Caraca , formerly a seminary and school, and now converted into a hotel. The school , famous in Brazil, was founded on the site of a hermitage and seminary in 1774, and for 150 years educated the upper classes of Minas Gerais, including generations of Brazilian politicians. In 1965 a fire destroyed much of the building, the theatre was burnt to the ground and the library lost two-thirds of its thirty thousand books. The building was restored in 1991 and transformed into a hotel , the Hospedaria do Caraca (tel 031/3837-2698, reservations essential; $50-70), managed by the remaining members of the order. It's a comfortable, low-key place to spend a few relaxing days. Some parts still remain from the original religious life of the building, including rooms for private prayer, a few bedrooms and the cellar. The neo-Gothic church of Nossa Senhora Mae Dos Homens, added in 1883, was also spared by the fire, and has beautiful French stained-glass windows, marble and soapstone carvings and a seven-hundred-pipe organ built in the seminary itself. There is a small museum attached to the church with exhibits rescued from the fire, including English and Chinese porcelain, furniture and a sundial. One of the greatest attractions of the place are the wolves ( lobo-guara) which live in the surrounding woods. One of them comes near the church almost every day to be fed by the monks.
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