deep in Lula land

Brasília is the capital of Brazil (shocking, I know). It too is located in the interior of the country (east of Cuiabá), a ploy to get more people to move inland from the coast. (The capital used to be in Rio.) President Juscelino Kubitschek planned the move and the city was constructed in the mid-‘50s. Because they were specifically building it to be the capital, they were able to design the whole city (planner Lúcio Costa & architect Oscar Niemeyer), making a section for the government buildings and monuments, another for schools, another for hospitals, etc. And most interesting is that the entire city is shaped like an airplane! While this is cool, it also makes stuff really far away – when you live on the south wing and have to go to the north wing, etc. Plus who ever thought it’d be cool to have everything grouped together instead of spread out so each neighborhood had one of everything?? Oh, and my friends said it was built to hold about 1.5 million, because they didn’t expect more to come, but now there’s around 3 million people. Come on, you want people to move & then you don’t plan for growth?? The result is that there are satellite cities around the airplane shape. :)

Here’s a picture of the shape of the city, then a model, so that you can kind of see the airplane shape. All the government buildings are in the cockpit – on the model, the right side (above where the wings curve). [Click to enlarge.]

... oh, and for the curious, Lula is the current president.

One day we spent the afternoon looking around the various buildings and monuments. It doesn’t take long because everything is all in one area! You can just walk around from one thing to the next, if you want.

First we went to the main Cathedral, which is beautiful! I had seen pictures of it, but loved it. (You will notice that all of the buildings here are quite interesting and unique architecturally!) You have to go kinda underground to enter it, so that what you see here is really just the part that’s above ground, the stained glass part.

On the left side there was a big oval thing that stood for the loaf from the Last Supper, and on the right a big structure that held 4 bells, and it stood for the chalice. I thought that was really cool. Also outside they have statues of the 4 apostles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Here’s the inside – it’s weird because there’ll always be people there praying while lots of tourists come in too. I LOOOVE stained glass, and they have 3 angels hanging from the roof too.

M confessing all her sins….

They even had a replica of Michelangelo’s Pietà here!

And a copy of the supposed shroud that covered Jesus in the grave (his skeleton is the lighter part in the middle).
Man, Catholics here are so bound up in their rituals and objects – symbols, saints, and idols. It’s sad.

Another super cool thing about this place is that the Cathedral is circular, so the walls inside are all curved (duh). But what’s cool is that it’s separated into 4 sections and you can stand on side and whisper to someone on the other end of it, and it sounds like they’re talking right beside you!!! It’s amazingly cool. Here, I guess I’ll have to put a pic so you can see what I mean. (Notice that this whole part is underground like I was saying – the part you see above ground starts with the roof & glass.)

Ok, I’ll just put about one picture of the other buildings.

Palácio da Justiça – Palace of Justice

Ministérios – many buildings on either side of this boulevard/park for the various government departments (agriculture, tourism, defense, etc.)

A Praça dos Três Poderes – The Plaza of the Three Powers, meaning Executive, Judicial, and Legislative power. It’s a huge open plaza surrounded by the buildings in these 3 areas, as well as other monuments & things.

Executive: the President’s palace/house (Palácio do Planalto) seen from a distance.


Judicial: the Supreme Court, with this statue in front of it. (notice that it’s blind – I guess to say that justice should be blind to prejudice or biases??)

Legislative: the Congress (representatives’) building – the most famous building there. It’s also called “the cup & saucer.” I’m told that the cup represents them listening to the people, and the saucer represents the government’s views… something like that, anyway. At least the cup one is bigger! :p

Other things in that praça – the Candangos statue (justice building in the background)

And this “Pombal” – which means it’s a random structure for pigeons. There were tons around the plaza, and inside this thing there were concrete shelf things, where the birds actually nested! Funny.

Behind it is this other building, which they say is dedicated to those who helped free Brazil.

There, I hope you enjoyed your tour of Brasília's government buildings!