BRASILIA

Brief history

Brasilia was constructed between 1956 and 1960, during the government of President Juscelino Kubitschek. It was inaugurated, as Brazil's new capital, on April 21, 1960. Its master plan ("Plano Piloto") was conceived by Lucio Costa, and its major buildings were designed by Oscar Niemeyer.

Planned for only 500,000 inhabitants, Brasilia has seen its population grow much more than expected. Several satellite towns have been created over the years to house the extra inhabitants. Brasilia's total population (including the satellite cities) is now over 2,000,000 inhabitants.

Positive and negative aspects of Brasilia:

- Positive:

the city is not threatened by any kind of natural disaster;

virtually no air pollution;

many and large green areas.

good climate: the temperature is very pleasant all year (never too hot, never too cold), and sunny days (and beautiful sunsets) are very common.

- Negative:

housing prices are very high, compared to other Brazilian cities;

public transportation is inefficient. The urban bus system has a lot of deficiencies; the construction of Brasilia's subway is going slowly because of funds shortage. As a consequence, most of the people who have cars commute by car;

foreigners usually dislike that only few people are to be found on the streets, and the great distances between the buildings;

the newer satellite towns have very few green areas, unlike some other satellite towns and the Pilot Plan itself;

many of the famous buildings are beautiful but not functional.

Tourist sights:

Tourist sights:

- Churches:

Cathedral - designed by Oscar Niemeyer. In 1988 it was painted white, and its glass windows were replaced by new colored ones, designed by Antonia Marianne Peretti.

Dom Bosco Sanctuary.

Igreja Nossa Senhora de Fátima ('Our Lady of Fatima Church'), usually called 'Igrejinha' ('Small Church').

LBV Ecumenic temple. The interior of LBV has many interesting sites to visit.

- Buildings and Monuments:

Praça dos Três Poderes ('Square of the Three Powers'), around which you can see various important Government buildings - the Congresso Nacional (Congress), the Palacio do Planalto ('Planalto Palace'), and the 'Supremo Tribunal Federal' (High Court) - as well as monuments (such as Liberty Panteon). Beside the 'Praça' you will also be able to see the National Flag and the 'Espaço Lucio Costa', in which you will find a mock-up of Brasilia.

Palácio da Alvorada (Palace of Dawn), the official residence of the President.

Catetinho, first presidential residence of the city. The building was constructed in only 10 days and inaugurated on October 31, 1956.

Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro (National Theater).

JK Memorial.

- Bird's eye views of the city:

From the specially made platform 75 meters high at the 224 m TV Tower;

Flying in a helicopter. The heliport is close to the TV Tower;

Flying in a "ultraleve" (an ultra light and simple aircraft which can take just one passenger and the pilot). An amazing experience, if you fly on a sunny day.

At "Espaço Lucio Costa", located in the underground of "Praça dos Três Poderes", there is a scale model of the city.

- Some of the many other tourist sights:

Stained glass windows in CEF's building - 24 all together, each one represents one state of Brazil.

Botanical Garden;

Zoo;

Brasilia National Park.

City Park;

Handicraft Fair, next to the TV Tower. Opens on weekends and holidays.

- Some tourist attractions in cities near Brasilia:

Chapada dos Veadeiros. This National Park is located about 250 km (around 155 miles) from the city of Brasilia, in the North of the state of Goias. In the Park there are many beautiful waterfalls as well as rock canyons and hot water springs. In the nearby city of Alto Paraiso there are many esoteric and new age groups - the town is often called "Capital of the Third Millennium". We have a specific page about Chapada dos Veadeiros, with many photos.

Pirenopolis is a nice town about 100 miles from the city of Brasilia. It has some nice colonial buildings and many beautiful waterfalls.

Meeting points:

"Pier 21" and "Pontão do Lago Sul" are some of the most important ones.

Along the commercial streets that divide the superblocks of Pilot Plan there are many bars. Some of the most famous ones are 'Beirute' (at '109 sul') and 'Libanus' (at '206 sul').

Shopping malls: ParkShopping, Conjunto Nacional and Pátio Brasil are the three big malls. There are smaller ones.

Other general information:

Language: Brazil's official language is Portuguese, but English is widely spoken by people that have entered University. The language that is most similar to Portuguese is Spanish. It 's easy for a Brazilian to understand written Spanish, but not to understand the common quickly spoken Spanish.

Religion: although Brazil is considered a catholic country, among the people that have entered University, you will find a high percentage of spiritists, protestants, agnostics and atheists;

Major local newspapers: 2 ("Correio Braziliense" and "Jornal de Brasilia");

Soccer teams: None of Brasilia's teams can be considered really important within the Brazilian context. The two most important local teams are "Brasiliense" and "Gama";

Carnaval: it is considered to be very dull compared to other Brazilian cities like Rio de Janeiro, Salvador or Olinda;

Speed limit: from 40 to 80 km/h depending on the street. Electronic speed control devices have been installed in many streets;

System of Measurement: only the metric system is used;

Car parking: free almost everywhere. However, the "guardadores" (poor, unemployed people) may ask you if they can guard you car. They would expect to receive around 25c to $ 1 no matter how much time you stay;

Security: at daylight a person can walk almost anywhere in Pilot Plan with few concerns. Of course, you are not supposed to walk alone in empty areas with lot of jewelry and showing to everybody that you have an expensive camera;

Public restrooms: they are very difficult to find;

Subway: a subway system is under construction and some parts of it are already operating. It runs partially underground (including 7 km under Pilot Plan) and partly on surface (the connections to satellite cities). See map;

Public illumination: mainly mercurium (white). Various streets now have sodium (yellow) illumination;

Urban birds: pigeons and sparrows. By the lake there are also snowy egrets.