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I wasn’t quite sure what I would make of Brazil’s iconic capital city. Brasília, the largest planned city in the world and the only one with UNESCO World Heritage status, is a mish-mash of impressive and elegant modern architecture and characterless and ugly concrete blocks. Located in the dry Brazilian highlands, some 1000km north of Rio and Sao Paulo, Brasília really does feel like it’s in the middle of nowhere. My overnight bus from Sao Paulo (15 hours) arrived at the bus terminal on the outskirts of the city (if I had planned a new city, I would have put the bus terminal much nearer to the city centre). For a city which is known as the cradle of modern architecture, the first few impressions weren’t that great, as the bus station and the shopping centre opposite, both built out of drab grey concrete, were pretty repulsive. The shape of the city is quite interesting - its design is based on the shape of a plane (or some say a bird). So the bus terminal was right at the tail of the plane, and pretty much everything to see is located on the main avenue that runs along the spine of
the plane. I had some difficulty in finding somewhere to stay at first, as there is only one hostel in the city and it is closed at the moment. But I eventually found a pousada (B&B) that was just about affordable. The whole city is divided into sectors and blocks, so for example my pousada was located in Sector 703 Block G House 61, which does make it easier to find things, but at the same time does make it sound as if you’re in a prison. The two wings, stretching north and south of the city, contain most of the residential blocks, whilst commercial activity is focused more on the main fuselage of the plane.
The main reason for visiting Brasília is to visit some of the best modernist architecture in the world, and in this Brasília didn’t disappoint. Nearly all of the main buildings were designed by Oscar Niemeyer, a protégé of Le Corbusier, and as I volunteered at a Le Corbusier chapel in France last year and learned all about his style of architecture, I did find Brasília an interesting city to visit. As you head from the centre of the plane (where the wings join)
towards to the nose, you first past the National Library and the National Museum. The latter is quite an interesting building, shaped like half of Saturn with the rings at an angle. Inside the museum there really isn’t that much to see - just a big empty space with pictures of the planning and construction of the city. Just past the museum is the Metropolitan Cathedral. This is rather modest from the outside, not what I was expecting for the cathedral in the capital city of the world’s most populous catholic country, and is based on an inverted chalice and a crown of thorns. Inside was absolutely spectacular. The semi-sunken nave is bathed in sunlight through the crystal roof, with blue and aquamarine waves permeating from the altar. Past the cathedral and the Monumental Axis, as the main avenue is called, is lined on both sides with all the ministries, before the avenue eventually ends at the Praça dos Três Poderes (Place of the Three Powers), where the buildings for the Legislative Assembly (Congress and Senate), Supreme Court and the offices of the President are located. The main building is the Legislative Assembly, with two domes and two towers, which
dominate the skyline at this end of the city. The smaller dome on the left sits above the Senate, whilst the larger, upturned dome on the right houses the Lower House. The first time I came to visit the building, the guided tours were suspended as a VIP was about to arrive (I never did find out who). Both this building and the Foreign Ministry had the red carpet rolled out, lined with the Presidential Guard on both sides (who seem to be a bit like the London Beefeaters and are not allowed to move). Luckily, on my final day in Brasilia I was able to visit the Congress and the Senate. Not that impressive from the inside to be frank. As both houses were in session, I wasn’t allowed to take any photos, but the chambers seemed pretty unspectacular. But it was interesting to see the parliament. One person in the Congress chamber was ranting about immigration to an almost empty chamber - the only people listening were the TV crew. Walking around at night and in the evening in this part of the city was dead quiet. Street lighting in some parts is virtually non existent, and as
a lot of the pavements are uneven, I did tumble a few times. Strange when this is supposed to be the focal point of the city.
A few kilometres out of the city, past the Place of the Three Powers, is the Dawn Palace, which is the unofficial symbol of the city, and was the first building completed in Brasília. As it’s the Presidential Residence, you can’t get that close, but the front façade is visible to tourists. Pass this is Lake Paranoá, and beyond the many satellite cities that make up Greater Brasília. The city was originally intended to have half a million residents by the year 2000; instead it has a population of over two and a half million, and is the fastest growing city in Brazil. One of the main problems this has caused is traffic. It is absolutely chaotic, not helped by the fact that the public transport system is rather poor. Parking is also crazy - everyone seems to block everyone else in as there is so little space in all of the car parks. They designed the city without a metro system, but recently built a line, but this is really only to
go from Brasília to one of the satellite cities, not to get around the city itself. All of the buses I used were jammed packed, so I tried to avoid them when possible. The problem with walking in the city is that the city was built on the premise that everyone would drive everywhere in their own car. Even walking along the Monumental Axis, crossing the road is a nightmare, as there are not always crossings or traffic lights, and especially at night in the poorly lit sections, it was very dangerous. On all of the side roads that link the two main carriageways of the Monumental Axis, cars drive on the left, which does actually make sense for the road system, but is at first rather confusing for pedestrians crossing.
One of the best things in Brasília is the Torre de Televisâo (TV Tower), which although itself is very ugly, offers magnificent views from the platform halfway up. And as it’s right in the centre, you can pretty much see everything. Plus it’s free, which is always useful. Watching the sun set from there was really quite beautiful.
My third and final day in Brasília started off
on the wrong foot when the B&B owner said I would have to pay for an extra night if I wanted to leave my luggage their for the day whilst exploring the city, which was absolutely ridiculous. So I wasted a good part of the morning heading to the bus terminal with my luggage, leaving it at the left luggage office, then heading back into town. Luckily the tours of the Senate and Congress run all day, so I still had plenty of time to fit those in. I really didn’t like the way everything in the city is categorised into specific zones - Banking Zone, Hotel Zone etc. There is no high street full of shops, only a few shopping centres dotted around the centre. But there are no supermarkets. In fact no shops at all where you can buy food. The nearest one I found was a good 30 minutes out of the centre in one of the wings. It’s bizarre. And yet there is a whole street of pharmacies - 12 in a row in fact (including 2 of the same company) much nearer the centre, but I can’t fathom how it makes sense to locate them
all in the same place.
After three days, I had managed to see just about everything worthwhile to see in the city. I enjoyed a lot of the architecture of the city, but the design as a whole for me didn’t work that well, and the city overall definitely doesn’t reflect the Utopian ideals which the city is supposed to be based upon. In some ways Brasília was a bit of a letdown, so hopefully the next city I visit, Belo Horizonte, will make up for it. The next blog will come from there.
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