Newsroom Agência Brasil
Brasilia – On December 7, 1987, Brasilia was named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture - Unesco. Today there are 936 properties worldwide considered “great landmarks… the cultural or natural heritage of all mankind… having outstanding universal value.”
The government of the Distrito Federal, where Brasilia is located, has designated this year a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the event (“Ano da Valorização de Brasília como Patrimônio Cultural da Humanidade”). The principle objective will be to make the inhabitants of the federal capital aware of the need to protect and preserve the city’s monuments.
The Heritage Site of Brasilia is the largest in the world, covering 112.5 square kilometers. At the moment, the GDF (government of the Federal District) is renovating the Catetinho (a wooden building that was the resident of president Juscelino Kubitschek while Brasilia was being built) and building a monument (“Paneão da Pátria”), the last one designed by Oscar Niemeyer to be placed in the center of the city in the Praça dos Três Poderes.
There are nine other Heritage Sites in Brazil : the historical city centers (“centros históricos”) of Salvador, Olinda, São Luis, Goiás (known as Goiás Velho, the first capital of the state ofGoiás), Diamantina (MG) and Ouro Preto (MG), besides the Parque Nacional da Serra da Capivara (PI), the ruins of São Miguel das Missões (RS) and a church, the Santuário de Bom Jesus de Matosinhos, in Congonhas do Campo (MG), that dates from 1757 when construction began.
Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English
Link - Brasília comemora 25 anos de tombamento como patrimônio da humanidade
