The
colonial settlement of Freguesia de Meia Ponte, now
named Pirenopolis, was founded in 1736 a few years after
prospectors from Sao Paulo found gold in
Vila
Boa de Goias. In 1771 Pirenopolis came under the
direction of the Catholic Church and was officially
recorded in their eclesiastica comarca on the 24th of
July, 1771. At that time Pirenopolis' church of Nossa
Senhora do Rosario already existed and was described
by Raymundo Cunha Mattos in his Chorographia Historica
da Provincia de Goyas as "big, beautiful, and mistreated
with two high belfries, five altars and nice ornamentation".
