"Brasília - The Monument City " a Brasília Travel Page by hugolorenzetti

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Juscelino Kubisthchek

"Eu organizo o movimento/ eu oriento o carnaval/ eu inauguro o monumento no planalto central do país" (Caetano Veloso)

I'm sorry for quoting in portuguese, but in my opinion there is no other song like "Tropicália" to introduce Brasília, not only because of the words, but alsso because of the song itself, its monumental sound created by Radamés Gnatalli, another indispensable musicist people who want to know Brazil should get in touch with.

Brasília was a dream of modenity, of starting anew and moving on to a bright and glorious future. Juscelino Kubistchek was the president who lead its construction in the heart of the country> That was another strategy to take the Brazilians - whose majority lived and still lives on a strip 200km large from the coast - to the countryside. A very pollemical project, criticised even nowadays, Brasilia was built with the shape of an airplane, according to Lucio Costa's urbanistic plan.

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Lucio Costa's project

Planned according to the idea that a country full of cars was a modern one - what was common sense in the late 50s and early 60s in Brazil, during the industrial boom - Brasília is not always an easy place to live. One must have a car. The city is not in its whole very cozy and many complain about the long distances between one thing and the other. One has to get used to it, for the urban problems are sor of peculiar for the ones who live here...

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From above - Google Earth

But for the visitor, Brasília is an excellent destination for art and architecture lovers, with its interesting public buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer and large avenues with no name.

It may look deserted sometimes, it also may look cold. Living here is not easy, but sometimes, while looking at the beatiful public buildings, while listening to the birds's songs on the trees near our flats, one can imagine what the men who created Brasilia were thinking... or dreaming about...

Also, there are some little secrets, some really special places that I want to talk about in my homepage.