History of Paraty

History of Paraty

Founded in 1667 on ground that the Guaraní already knew as Paraty ("river of fish"), the town's first life was as a gold port. For nearly a century, every ounce of gold mined in Minas Gerais was carried down the Caminho do Ouro — a cobblestone mule trail over the Atlantic forest — and loaded onto ships in Paraty's harbor.

When Rio's port opened and the gold route shifted north, Paraty turned to sugar and cachaça. More than 150 distilleries once sat in the surrounding valleys. Slavery, wealth, and collapse left behind whitewashed churches, merchant houses with blue-trim shutters, and stone streets purposefully flooded by the moon tide to wash the town.

The 20th century mostly forgot Paraty. A road from Rio to Santos was only finished in 1970, and with it came a second discovery: tourists, preservationists, and writers who found a 300-year-old town almost perfectly intact.

Today Paraty is UNESCO-listed — both for the old town and the biodiverse mosaic of Atlantic forest and sea that surrounds it. Walking here is walking through a lived museum: the churches, the shutters, the smugglers' alleys are all still here — just now with cachaça tastings and a literary festival.