Another Brazilian site gains World Heritage status

The city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, is planning to hold two-month festivities to celebrate the inscription of the Pampulha Modern Ensemble on UNESCO's World Heritage list. The celebration activities will run from July 22 to September 22.

The modernist architectural complex was inscribed on the heritage list last Sunday (Jul. 17) in Istanbul, Turkey, by consensus decision of the 21 member countries in the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The official ceremony that will award the certificate to Brazil is slated for August 17.

The complex

Designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, the Pampulha Modern Ensemble consists of five buildings—the São Francisco de Assis church, the Casa do Baile ballroom, the Pampulha Museum of Art, the Yacht Tennis Club, and Kubitschek House. They were all built around the Pampulha artificial lake between 1942 and 1943, during the administration of then-mayor Juscelino Kubitschek, who was to become president of Brazil in 1956-1960. As a president, he commissioned the construction of Brazil's modernist capital city, Brasília, which is also a World Heritage Site.

Also part of the modernist complex are gardens designed by Roberto Burle Marx, tile panels painted by Cândido Portinari, and sculptures by renowned artists including Alfredo Ceschiatti and José Alves Pedrosa.

UNESCO's World Heritage List includes over a thousand sites including the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Egypt, and the Inca sanctuary of Machu Picchu inPeru. Brazil is home to 20 of these sites, four of them in Minas Gerais state—the Pampulha Modern Ensemble, the historic center of Diamantina, the historic town of Ouro Preto, and the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas, which is home to Baroque sculptures by Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as the Aleijadinho.

This achievement boosts the tourist potential of the Pampulha complex, which is already one of the main attractions for visitors in the capital city of Minas Gerais.

Translated by Mayra Borges

Relacionadas

Lack of funding threatens UNESCO World Heritage in Brazil