As someone who travels a good bit and who is often around people who travel a good bit, I often hear "travel trauma tales." As I listen to these, usually with considerable sympathy, I often find myself being inwardly thankful that, for the most part, my travels have been mostly without incident. Perhaps my run of luck came to an end yesterday, as my still-in-progress trip to Northeast Brazil has not gone well so far. I will spare the "travel trauma tale," however. It's really not all that traumatic in the grand scheme of things. Instead, I'll focus on the unexpected chance to explore Brazil's capital, Brasília.
Brasília, so I am told, is the largest city in the world that did not exist in 1900. It was built from scratch in the 1950s and became Brazil's capital city in 1960. Somewhat like L'Enfant's Washington, DC a century-and-a-half earlier, it was a wholly new city, designed on a grid. Brasília reminds me quite a bit of Washington, DC, albeit with mid-century-modern replacing the Greco-Roman-revival motif.
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| Row of Ministries, with Parliament in the background - for a better photo look here |
The movement of the capital from Rio de Janeiro in 1960 was something that had been in the works for more than a century, as numerous rulers of Brazil sought a capital city that was more centrally located and away from the established power structures and influences of the Rio-São Paulo corridor in the southeast. The new capital was also meant to make a strong political statement about the progress and potential of mid-20th-century Brazil. Designed by urban planner Lucio Costas and architect Oscar Niemeyer, the city is designed for both dramatic space and economic functionality. The division of the city into sectors (an embassy sector, a hotel sector, a business sector) take place on a giant grid. These areas are connected by wide, grand avenues and large green spaces.
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| The National Museum with Ministries in the backgroud |
The "Square of the Three Powers" (executive, legislative, and judicial) forms the heart of Brasilia, sitting at the end of a several-miles-long esplanade not completely dissimilar from the National Mall in Washington. But unlike the variety of buildings of various eras that line the Washington Mall, the first mile or so of the Brasília Esplanade is lined with identical buildings housing various ministries of the government. A large lake abuts this area, creating some fantastic water views.
The far end of the Esplanade is anchored by a very 20th-century monument, the television tower. As in so many cities, a dramatic television tower was a powerful statement about the government's ability to speak to its citizens in a single idiom and with a common, centralized culture. The tower is surrounded by some lovely fountains today.
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| The television tower at sunset |
Perhaps the most dramatic buildings on the Esplanade are the Parliament building and the Cathedral. The Parliament consists of two connected towers (not dissimilar from the UN building in New York), together with a "dome" and a "bowl," each housing a house of the Brazilian Parliament.
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| The Congress (from Wikipedia) |
Although Brasília lacks the beautiful artistry of colonial-era churches so common in most smaller Brazilian cities, its modern religious architecture is among the best I've seen. The Cathedral, which stands on the side of the Esplanade, resembles a crown (it also reminds me of a standing rib roast, but that's not nearly as spiritual). The building is mostly glass, with the main sanctuary about one floor underground, accessed by subterranean entrances. The effect is quite dramatic as the light shines through the stained-glass walls into the sparse interior. It seems to capture in a very apt way the spirit of mid-20th-century Christianity much as the Sacré Coeur in Paris captures the spirit of Christianity fifty years prior. The Dom Bosco Sanctuary, located just outside of the downtown area, is another architectural treasure of floor-to-ceiling stained glass, kind of a mid-century-modern version of the Sainte Chapelle.
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| The Cathedral and Belltower |
At nearly 3 million, Brasília is Brazil's fourth largest city and represents the fifth largest economic unit in Latin America (many large Brazilian companies are based here). The city lacks the sense of rootedness that many older cities have, even when much of their architectural history has faded away. It certainly lacks the throbbing pulse that makes São Paulo so very frenetic. And it lacks the stunning visual background that Guanabara Bay gives to Rio de Janeiro. It does not have the "global city" feel of the capital cities of other emerging economies -- Beijing, Delhi, Moscow, Mexico City, etc. Yet more than most cities, it captures the essence of a moment of time, a hopeful, progressive moment that seems a bit naive from today's perspective. As Brazil continues to step up on the world stage, I have no doubt that its capital will step with it. Yet it will continue to remind of another Brazil in another time.
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| The Cathedral - Interior |
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