Mariana Station

Also known as Parque Station, the Mariana Station is a complex consisting of the Playground-Musical Square, the Station Library, the old house where Mariana Station used to be, and stationary railway cars located in the surroundings.

Entrance Hall [+]

A kiosk located in the entrance hall of Mariana Station invites the audience to learn more about the program and the curiosities about the old railway using a touch-screen computer, and to take a trip through the region’s natural wonders, its history and cultural heritage by means of enlarged images and enhanced sound on a plasma TV.

Playground-Musical Square [+]

Located in an open-air space in the station surroundings, the Playground-Musical Square consists of a set of works that integrate acoustical toys, luthierie, fine arts and architecture which are open to the public, especially to children.

The structures were made up from recycled railway materials and scraps from the old railway line, thus combining art and ecology. The place also houses workshops which are open to the community and offer art-education activities that encourage the creation of musical instruments and the resonation of toys.

Library [+]

The Library has a collection of 4,300 books, magazines, and DVDs of domestic and international films, all connected to themes such as literature, natural and cultural heritage, history, and memory.

It is an appropriate place for reading, researching, consulting and studying, available to the entire community, but primarily to children and teenagers.

Multipurpose Room [+]

The Multipurpose Room offers opportunities for intergenerational mingling. It has a plasma TV and DVD player, as well as two totems on which the narrations recorded in the Room of Oral History are exhibited. Moreover, films from the Library’s collection are also shown there.

Video Workshop Car [+]

The Video Workshop Car is reserved for videotaping the oral history narrations of residents and visitors. The purpose is to appreciate the regional identity, thereby, strengthening the transmission of knowledge and affective memory related to the heritage of the place.

The car houses equipment for video production, which are used to record narratives in the oral memory program and in video workshops arranged by means of the Program.

Sensory Railway Car [+]

The Sensory Railway Car recalls the train ride between Ouro Preto and Mariana by means of videos shown on a dozen screens – six on each side – installed on the inside surface of the car windows.

The videos offer an immersion in a universe of projected poetic images that facilitate the creation of new audiovisual formats. The video language, together with a non-linear exhibition structure, arouses curiosity about the process by which they were created, giving visitors a change to experience the feelings, sounds, and images of the region.

Currently, three themes are being exhibited at the railway car of the senses: “Baroque”, “Everyone’s Car”, and “Bell Tower”. The first one is a strong reference to the daily lives of both cities. “Everyone’s Car” features comments by residents of Ouro Preto and Mariana about the historical and cultural legacy of their cities.

The last one honors the tradition of bell ringing, an art that still survives through the bellmen’s rare profession.

Coffee Railway Car [+]

Located in one of the stationary cars in the surroundings of the Station, the Coffee Railway Car offers visitors a complete infrastructure for leisure and gastronomy, with a varied, high-quality menu.

The place is comfortably furnished and offers outdoor tables which turn the Railway Car into a pleasant entertainment and interaction option.

Museographic Space [+]

The Museographic Space at Mariana Station has a display named Paisagem em Movimento (Landscape in Motion) consisting of texts, maps, and pictures about Mariana’s urban development from the 18th to the 20th century, highlighting the coming of the railway in 1914.

It also houses a multimedia kiosk, in which the visitor can access interactive interfaces with all of the program’s data, as well as information and videos on the progress of the cities, their natural and cultural heritage, and narrations by residents.