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Although it has been overshadowed by its neighbour for over two centuries, you can still get a good idea of Mariana's early flourishing in one of the best museums in Minas Gerais, the Museu Arquidiocesano in the old bishop's palace, on Rua Frei Durao (Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 1-5pm). The building itself is magnificent, with parts dating from the first decade of the eighteenth century, when it began life, bizarrely, as a prison for erring churchmen. The Franciscans were deeply involved in the Paulista expeditions and were notorious for being the worst cut-throats of all. Between 1720 and 1756 the jail was extended into a palace: the door and window frames are massive, built in beautifully worked local soapstone. Inside, the collection is predictable - arte sacra and colonial furniture - but is distinguished by its quality and age, often predating the earliest material in Ouro Preto by two or three decades. It gives a vivid idea of how Mariana was thriving, with stone buildings and all the trappings of the early eighteenth-century good life, when Ouro Preto was still a collection of hovels. On the ground floor there's a sobering collection of chains and manacles draped along the walls, and also the "treasure room", containing the ecclesiastical gold and silver. But the bulk of things to see are upstairs. The stairwell is dominated by a taste of things to come, a powerful painting of Christ's Passion by Athayde, his best-known work. The stairs lead up to a number of graceful colonial rooms, including the luxurious private quarters of the bishops, which contain an excellent collection of religious art, notably the largest number of Aleijadinho figures anywhere outside a church. They are instantly recognizable: Sao Joao Nepomuceno, the bearded Sao Joaquim in religious ecstacy and a marvellous Sao Miguel in the corner by the window. The colonial furniture section, usually the dullest part of Minas museums, is actually worth seeing here: lovely writing desks and chests of drawers, all early eighteenth century and most made of jacaranda wood - there was a glut on the market at the time, as the forests were felled to get at the gold. The most unusual exhibit is a false bookcase, with wooden "books" painted to resemble leather. You can also wander around the bishop's audience room - the throne is also by Aleijadinho, who was nothing if not versatile - and there's a separate gallery of the bishops' portraits, incongruously included amongst which are three, rather good, local landscapes by the German artist Nobauer
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