Buraco do Padre

It is located within the Campos Gerais National Park, on the eastern edge of the Paraná Basin, approximately 24 km east/southeast of the city of Ponta Grossa, district of Itaiacoca. It is a cave that occurs at the intersection of geological faults and fractures that cut the sandy rocks of the Furnas Formation. These faults and fractures caused the sandstone to subsoil. Access to the interior of the cave is through the bed of the Quebra-Pedra River, with an imposing waterfall. Inside the Buraco do Padre there are notable exposures of sandstones from the Furnas Formation, with their typical cross and plane-parallel stratifications.

Since 2002 it is one of the Brazilian geological sites, as defined by the Brazilian Commission of Geological and Paleobiological Sites. It was a refuge for the Jesuits, owners of the Pitangui land sesmarias that also housed the old path of the troops. Its name was assigned by the caboclos and tropeiros who passed through there. Climbing is prohibited.