Built from nothing on empty savannah in under four years and inaugurated on 21 April 1960 (1960)
Driven by President Juscelino Kubitschek's slogan of 'fifty years' progress in five'
Geography · Cities
Brasília
inaugurated 21 April 1960
Brazil — on the central plateau, in the Federal District
A capital conjured out of empty savannah in forty-one months, opened in 1960 to pull Brazil's centre of gravity inland from the coast. Lucio Costa laid out its Pilot Plan, Oscar Niemeyer designed its white concrete monuments and Roberto Burle Marx its landscaping. It is the only city built in the 20th century to be listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
How to spot them
- ▸A purpose-built inland capital opened in 1960, replacing a coastal one
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Plano Piloto', 'Niemeyer', 'Lucio Costa', 'the Monumental Axis'
- ▸A plan often likened to an aeroplane or a bird in flight
- ▸The only 20th-century city on the UNESCO World Heritage List
Key facts
It took the role of national capital away from a coastal city in 1960 (1960)
Rio de Janeiro had been the capital since 1763
Its Pilot Plan, by Lucio Costa, is usually described as shaped like an aeroplane or a bird in flight (1957)
A Monumental Axis crossing a curved residential axis of superquadras
Its cathedral is a ring of sixteen curving concrete columns, entered down a dark ramp, with angels hung from the roof (1970)
Designed by Oscar Niemeyer; the hyperboloid form and Marianne Peretti's stained glass
Its twin 28-storey towers stand between one bowl-shaped and one dome-shaped chamber (1960)
The National Congress: the bowl is the Chamber of Deputies, the dome the Senate
It is the only city built in the 20th century to be inscribed on the World Heritage List (1987)
Listed for its modernist urban design
Its residential blocks are numbered rather than named, and addresses read as codes like SQS 308
The superquadras of the Plano Piloto, each with its own school and shops
Quick-fire facts
- •Capital of Brazil and seat of the Federal District; about 2.8 million people in the Federal District
- •The three creators: Lucio Costa (urban plan), Oscar Niemeyer (architecture), Roberto Burle Marx (landscape)
- •Kubitschek is buried in the city at the Memorial JK; the artificial Lake Paranoa borders it
- •The Praca dos Tres Poderes, the Square of the Three Powers, holds the Congress, the Planalto Palace and the Supreme Federal Court
- •Rio de Janeiro was Brazil's capital from 1763 to 1960; Salvador before that
- •The idea of an interior capital appears in the Brazilian constitution of 1891, and the site was surveyed by the Cruls Mission in the 1890s
- •Brasilia International Airport is one of Brazil's busiest
- •Niemeyer, who lived to 104, also designed the Itamaraty Palace and the Palacio da Alvorada there
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Brasilia
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Brasília