Carmo do Rio Claro is a municipality located in the south-west of Minas Gerais state, Brazil.

The climate of the municipality is classified as subtropical mesothermic, characterized by dry winters and wet summers.

Initially with the help of locals, José Joaquim Santana, built in his lands a small chapel in the place where today is the main church Igreja Matriz de Carmo do Rio Claro.

The freguesia de Nossa Senhora do Carmo do Monte do Rio Claro was created in 1810, in the lands inside the Princess Campaign area, to be later, 1814, included to the Jacuí municipality.

The fertility of its lands propitiated the development of great farms, economic basis of the town, which in 1848 started to be part of Passos.