Brasília

Capital of Brazil since its inauguration in 1960, the construction of Brasília was determined by the President of the Republic, Juscelino Kubitschek in 1956 and is now registered by UNESCO as a world heritage site. A national contest was held to decide on the design of the new city and the jury consisted of the Englishman, William Holford, the Frenchman, André Sive, the Greek, Stamo Papadaki and the Brazilians Paulo Antunes Ribeiro, Horta Barbosa, Israel Pinheiro (chairman) and Oscar Niemeyer, the architect responsible for the city’s main architectural works.

Lucio Costa was announced the winner on March 16th, 1957, and the other qualifying designs were those submitted by the teams formed by B. Milman, J.H. Rocha and Ney Gonçalves (in second place), Rino Levi and associates and M.M.M. Roberts (joint third place). The design submitted by the team of young São Paulo architects, which included Joaquim Guedes, contained ideas and forms that were similar to those of the winning entry, evidence of the importance of road axes and a linear structure in the definition of contemporary town planning.

The draft scheme submitted by Lucio Costa was in the form of an aeroplane or a cross; the wings (north and south) consisted of a road axis with lateral axes (east and west) incorporated and bordered by multi-family units in large squares, formed by rectangular blocks of six and three floors, intersected by streets for businesses and premises for schools and leisure activities. The complex of the four large squares was called the Neighbourhood Unit, as it contained residential and every day facilities.

On the smaller arm of the cross or the aircraft wings, the local and federal government offices are arranged in regular rows, comprising the Esplanada dos Ministérios, grouped around areas at the poles to create the Praça dos Três Poderes occupied by the federal government, the Paço Municipal in the Praça do Buriti. The unusual structure of Brasília Cathedral, adorned inside by an imaginary nun designed by the sculptor Alfredo Ceschiatti, lends emphasis to the surrounding paved area with a back-drop consisting of the monumental domes of the National Congress.

In this immense area, where the sign of the cross is expressed in a directly symbolic way according to the rules laid down by Lucio Costa in the explanatory notes accompanying his initial sketch, the buildings of the different government departments are intermingled with areas concerned with business, leisure and public transport. The areas designed to accommodate this mixture of functions are located at the intersections and consist of theatres, shopping centres, banks and roads.

The areas where the embassies and the University of Brasília are situated are an excellent example of Brazilian and international architecture and house centres of advanced research in various disciplines. Facing the vast artificial lake to the east of the city, these areas are also occupied by clubs, parks and housing. The recent use of the lakeside for highly sophisticated shopping and recreation is a move towards making Brasília a tourist attraction as well as being a political and administrative centre, expanding the potential for the development of the Centre West in accordance with the objectives of the then President Kubitschek.

Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais is one of Brazil’s largest states and the home of Tiradentes, hero of the Inconfidência Mineira (The Revolution of Minas Gerais), of Aleijadinho, the sculptor; of the composer Milton Nascimento; the writer Guimarães Rosa and of the two Brazilian presidents, Juscelino Kubitschek and Tancredo Neves – among so many other artists, political leaders, musicians, writers and presidents of the Republic. With extremely varied relief and vegetation, its valleys and mountains reveal historic-baroque towns inhabited by warm-hearted and hospitable people. The second state in Brazil in terms of its economy (it loses out only to the state of São Paulo) Minas Gerais is also known for its good and rich culinary art, famous for its tasty dishes like pão-de-queijo and typical dishes such as tutu in the Minas Gerais style and chicken with dark sauce. Minas Gerais not only has a coastline, it also has therapeutic waters that spring from its mineral-rich soil. With its hydro-mineral and thermal resorts it forms the water circuit, an ideal tour for the winter months of June and July.

The occupation of the soil of Minas Gerais by the Portuguese began right after the discovery of Brazil, in the XVI and XVII centuries. The discovery of gold and precious stones attracted many explorers who transformed the state into the Brazilian economic centre of the day. Today, there is no longer an abundance of gold, but unforgettable landscapes remain, with buildings from the period, mountains, woods, pure air, lakes, caves, stories and legends.

Since the colonial era, Minas Gerais has stood out in Brazil because of its culture. Music, architecture, literature and the plastic arts are some of the sectors successfully developed by artists from the state. In the towns of the gold circuit, where the XVIII century music from Minas Gerais grew, buildings of the XVI and XVIII centuries are preserved and express the art of the Minas Gerais’ baroque. The most famous of these towns, Ouro Preto, was the stage for the Inconfidência Mineira, the first movement for the independence of Brazil, and is now recognised by Unesco as World Heritage Site.

Minas Gerais also offers the waters of the São Francisco river forming a strategic and fundamental water resource for regional development. The electricity-generating capacity of Minas Gerais is 10,877 MW, corresponding to about 18% of the national capacity. The state consumes 75% of the electricity it produces and exports the balance to other centres of consumption. Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (Cemig), a mixed-economy organization, is responsible for the largest distribution network in Latin America and is 240,000 kilometres long.

Minas Gerais occupies 588 000 km2 of Brazilian territory, an area greater than that of countries like France (544 000 km2) or Japan (378 000 km2). Despite being the biggest national producer of coffee (10 million bags processed in 1994) and milk (2.7 billion litres annually), farming represents only 14.1% of its GDP. The industrial sector, which is wide and varied, is at present responsible for 26.3% of state production – mining and metallurgy are among the chief activities in the sector, alongside the automobile sector established around Fiat Automóveis. The remaining 59.9% of the GDP is divided among services, commerce and financial institutions, amongst others. The state has forty five industrial estates in operation, thirty four of which located in the interior and eleven in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region. Altogether they accommodate approximately 1,200 industries.