Cidade patrimonio tropical

Marvellous historical village, World Property of the Humanity, Paraty constitute an architectonical pearl of Brazil. Grounded in 1597 by the Portuguese, the historical centre has been remained intact with his roads paved with big blocks of porphyry, to permit the water to flow towards the sea.
In the ancient times it was a very important harbour for the “camino do ouro”, where the precious metal of the mines of the region of the Minas Gerais, crossed the Valley of the Paraiba and the Serra del Mare and arrived exactly at Paraty. From here out left ships full with gold directly towards the mother patria and returned from Africa full with slaves.
Around the middle of the XVIII century, the decline of the gold business was fatal for the village, which looses his importance, until the short cycle of the coffee, at the beginning of the ‘800. Paraty lived years of real and proper isolation; it could only be reached from the sea. In 1950 a dirty road was build, only practicable in the dry season and only in the 80th, with the coastal Rio de Janeiro – Santos, Paraty becomes accessible, also if decentralized respect to the tourist traditional aims. Thanks to this involuntary isolation, Paraty has kept his architectonical original structures and his traditions
In the historical centre is to be visiting:
Igreja de Nossa Sinora do Rosaria: of 1725, build by the devoted slaves and poor persons, in wood, during the XIX century. It was build as a tower and the church raises the today’s aspect.
Igreja de Santa Rita: of 1772, is a Church in Baroque Rococò Style, with remarkable altars in his intern.
The bay:
The Bay of Paraty is in a privileged position for his clear and still waters, for the variety of the beaches and for the multitude of the islands and little islands (more than 200). The beaches are reachable from the sea from the Port of Paraty or across the “trilhas”, the paths along the coast.
Along the more suggestive beaches are:
- Cachadaco. Surrounded by spontaneous vegetation with white beaches, but with strong wells, but from the end starts a path that brings to a natural swimming-pool, formed by big volcanic stones, where it is possible to see many species of fishes.
- Ponte Negra, one the nicest beaches, wild and primitive with nearby a “cachoeira”, a waterfall. Area of environment protection, it is reachable only from the sea and when the sea is calm.
- Parity Mirim: clear and calm water, has good structures for the tourists. Together with the beach Vermelha, is it the most frequented from the Brazilian tourists; from all these beaches you are immersed from the visual of myriad of the islands that at the horizon it surrounds.
Intern Paraty:
Numerous paths lead to the intern wild with blooming vegetation.
Some of these paths are bound to “camihno do Ouro” at the intern of the National Park of the Serra da Bacaina and build from the slaves (30 Km.); or the path Corsico – Picinguaba, that ends at Ubatuba, meeting between different waterfalls the “Casa de Farihna”; or, again, from Corsico to Rio dos Meros; from Taquari to Iriri with his waterfalls; from Paraty Mirim to Saco do Mamanguà with ruins of colonial farm houses.