BELLO HORIZONTE, ARCHDIOCESE OF. – A city in Brazil, situated at an altitude of 785 m, at the foot of the Serra do Espinhaço, in a healthy and water-rich region, capital of the State of Minas Gerais (593,810 sq. km and 8 million inhabitants). Erected as a diocese by Pope Benedict XV with the bull *Pastoralis sollicitudo* on 11 February 1921, comprising 20 municipalities and the parish of Itabira within the archdiocese of Mariana, as a suffragan of Mariana. It was later elevated to an archdiocese by Pope Pius XI with the bull *Ad munus Nobis* on 10 February 1924, with the dioceses of Aterrado, Guaxupé, and Uberaba as its suffragans. The cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of the Good Journey.
In 1947, it had a population of approximately 1 million inhabitants and 91 parishes; 113 secular priests, 12 male religious congregations and 25 female ones, and 2 seminaries.