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Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropolis is anchor to the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, ranked as the third-most populous metropolitan area in Brazil and the 17th-most populous in the Americas. Belo Horizonte is the capital of
the state A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "stat ...
of
Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
, Brazil's second-most populous state. It is the first planned modern city in Brazil. The region was first settled in the early 18th century, but the city as it is known today was planned and constructed in the 1890s, to replace
Ouro Preto Ouro Preto (, ''Black Gold''), formerly Vila Rica (, ''Rich Village''), is a city in and former capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a former colonial mining town located in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains and designated a World Herita ...
as the capital of Minas Gerais. The city features a mixture of contemporary and classical buildings, and is home to several modern Brazilian architectural icons, most notably the Pampulha Complex. In planning the city, Aarão Reis and Francisco Bicalho sought inspiration in the urban planning of
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
The city has employed notable programs in urban revitalization and
food security Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World F ...
, for which it has been awarded international accolades. The city is built on several hills, and is completely surrounded by mountains. There are several large parks in the immediate surroundings of Belo Horizonte. The Mangabeiras Park (Parque das Mangabeiras), southeast of the city centre in the hills of Curral Ridge (Serra do Curral), has a broad view of the city. It has an area of , of which is covered by the native forest. The Jambeiro Woods (Mata do Jambeiro) nature reserve extends over , with vegetation typical of the
Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...
. More than 100 species of birds inhabit the reserve, as well as 10 species of mammals. Belo Horizonte was one of the host cities of the 1950 and the
2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...
. Additionally, the city shared as host of the
2013 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth FIFA Confederations Cup, which was held in Brazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tourna ...
and the football tournament during the
2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
.


History


Portuguese colonization

The metropolis was once a small village, founded by João Leite da Silva Ortiz, a
bandeirante The ''Bandeirantes'' (), literally "flag-carriers", were slavers, explorers, adventurers, and fortune hunters in early Colonial Brazil. They are largely responsible for Brazil's great expansion westward, far beyond the Tordesillas Line of 1494 ...
explorer from
São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
. The explorer settled in the region in 1701, leading a gold rush expedition. He then established a farm called "Curral d'el Rey," archaic Portuguese for the "King's Corral," which in modern Portuguese would be spelled ''Curral do Rei''. The farm's wealth and success encouraged people from surrounding places to move into the region, and Curral del Rey became a village surrounded by
farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...
s. Another important factor contributing to the growth of the village was people immigrating from the
São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon, the Paraná and t ...
region, who had to pass through Curral d'el Rey to reach southern parts of Brazil. Travelers usually visited a small wooden chapel, where they prayed for a safe trip, so the chapel was named Capela da Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem, which means "Chapel of Our Lady of the Good Journey." After the construction of Belo Horizonte, the old baroque chapel was replaced by a
neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
church that became the city's
cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...
.


Brazilian Empire and Republic

The previous capital of Minas Gerais,
Ouro Preto Ouro Preto (, ''Black Gold''), formerly Vila Rica (, ''Rich Village''), is a city in and former capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a former colonial mining town located in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains and designated a World Herita ...
(meaning "black gold," due to dark rocks with gold inside found on the region), originally called "Vila Rica" ("wealthy village"), was a symbol of both the monarchic
Brazilian Empire The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pe ...
and the period when most of Brazilian income was due to mining. That never pleased the members of the Inconfidência Mineira, republican intellectuals who conspired against the Portuguese dominion of Brazil. In 1889, Brazil became a republic, and it was agreed that a new state capital, in tune with a modern and prosperous Minas Gerais, had to be established. In 1893, due to the climatic and topographic conditions, Curral Del Rey was selected by Minas Gerais governor
Afonso Pena Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena (; 30 November 1847 – 14 June 1909) was a Brazilian politician who served as the List of presidents of Brazil, sixth president of Brazil between 1906 and 1909. Before his political career, Pena had been an attorney ...
among other cities as the location for the new economic and cultural center of the state, under the new name of ''Cidade de Minas'', or City of Minas. , an
urbanist Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and m ...
from
Pará Pará is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian state) ...
, was then chosen to design the second
planned city A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
of Brazil (the first one is
Teresina Teresina is the capital and most populous municipality in the Brazilian state of Piauí. Being located in north-central Piauí 366 km from the coast, it is the only capital in the Brazilian Northeast that is not located on the shores of the ...
). Cidade de Minas was inaugurated in 1897, with many unfinished buildings as the
Brazilian government The politics of Brazil take place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. The political and administrative or ...
set a deadline for its completion. The local government encouraged growth through subsidies. It offered free lots and funding for building houses. An interesting feature of Reis' downtown street plan for Belo Horizonte was the inclusion of a symmetrical array of perpendicular and diagonal streets named after
Brazilian states Brazilian commonly refers to: * Something of, from or relating to Brazil * Brazilian Portuguese, the dialect of the Portuguese language used mostly in Brazil * Brazilians, the people (citizens) of Brazil, or of Brazilian descent Brazilian may also ...
and Brazilian
indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
tribes. In 1906, the name was changed to Belo Horizonte. At that time, the city was experiencing a considerable industrial expansion that increased its commercial and service sectors. From its very beginning, the city's original plan prohibited workers from living inside the urban area, which was defined by Avenida do Contorno (a long avenue that goes around the city's central areas). Reserved for government workers (hence the name of the trendy neighbourhood "Funcionários"), and bringing about an accelerated occupation outside the city's area well provided with infrastructure since its very beginning. Obviously, the city's original planners did not count on its ongoing population growth, which proved especially intense in the last 20 years of the 20th century. In the 1940s, a young
Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
designed the Pampulha Neighbourhood to great acclaim, a commission he got thanks to then-mayor and soon-to-be-president
Juscelino Kubitschek Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...
. These two men are largely responsible for the wide
avenue Avenue or Avenues may refer to: Roads * Avenue (landscape), traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees, in the shifted sense a tree line itself, or some of boulevards (also without trees) * Avenue Road, Bangalore * Avenue Road, ...
s, large lakes, parks, and jutting skylines that characterize the city today. A 1949 American government film favorably reviewed the planning and building of the city. Belo Horizonte is fast becoming a regional center of commerce. The Latin American research and development center of Google, situated in Belo Horizonte, was responsible for the management and operation of the former
social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
website
Orkut Orkut was a social networking service owned and operated by Google. The service was designed to help users meet new and old friends and maintain existing relationships. The website was named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökt ...
. It continues to be a trendsetter in the arts, particularly where music, literature, architecture, and the ''avant garde'' are concerned.


Geography


Surrounding cities and metropolitan area

The term "Grande BH" ("Greater Belo Horizonte") denotes any of various definitions for the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte. The legally defined ''Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte'' consists of 34 municipalities in total, and a population of around six million inhabitants (, according to Brazil's National Institute of Geography and Statistics (
IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information ...
)). The intense process of urbanization that is taking place in the metropolitan region has made some of the political boundaries between municipalities in the region obsolete. The city is now composed of a relatively contiguous urban area, centred on Belo Horizonte, which extends out into municipalities such as
Contagem Contagem () is a city in the center of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. It is only from the capital, Belo Horizonte, and forms part of a metropolitan area with a population of 4.8 million. Geography The city belongs to the metropolitan meso ...
,
Betim Betim is a town in Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is located at around . The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitan of Belo Horizonte (BH) and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. It is the fifth largest city in Minas Gerais and one of the 50 larg ...
,
Nova Lima Nova Lima is a municipality of about 87,000 people, whose downtown is located about 20 kilometers south of Belo Horizonte, the capital of the south-eastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Mining is one of the main economical activities of the ...
,
Raposos Raposos is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. Geography The municipality contains the Raposos gold mines open ...
,
Ribeirão das Neves Ribeirão das Neves ('' en, Snow's Creek'') is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. Most residents commute to Be ...
,
Ibirité Ibirité is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. Its population in 2020 was 182,153. History Ibirité was bor ...
, Santa Luzia and
Sabará Sabará is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to Greater Belo Horizonte, the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region and to the associated microregion. It is a well preserved historic city and retains th ...
, among others. The municipality is bounded to the north by
Vespasiano Vespasiano is a municipality in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, located north of Belo Horizonte. Vespasiano is home to Cidade do Galo, the training grounds of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A t ...
, to the north east by Santa Luzia, by Sabará to the east, by Nova Lima to the southeast,
Brumadinho Brumadinho () is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the Belo Horizonte metropolitan mesoregion and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. Brumadinho is at an altitude of 880 m. In 2020 the population wa ...
to the south and Ribeirão das Neves, Contagem and
Ibirité Ibirité is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. Its population in 2020 was 182,153. History Ibirité was bor ...
to the west. According to the current geographic classification by IBGE, the municipality belongs to the Immediate Geographic Region of Belo Horizonte, in the
Intermediate Geographic Region of Belo Horizonte The Intermediate Geographic Region of Belo Horizonte (code 3101) is one of the 13 intermediate geographic regions in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais and one of the 134 of Brazil, created by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics ...
.


Geology and geomorphology

Belo Horizonte lies on a region of contact between different geological series of the
Proterozoic The Proterozoic () is a geological eon spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8million years ago. It is the most recent part of the Precambrian "supereon". It is also the longest eon of the Earth's geologic time scale, and it is subdivided ...
. The geology largely comprises
crystalline rock A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosc ...
s, which give rise to the varied morphology of the landscape. It is located in a large geological unit known as the
craton A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging and ...
of São Francisco, referring to extensive crustal nucleus of central-eastern Brazil, tectonically stable at the end of the
Paleoproterozoic The Paleoproterozoic Era (;, also spelled Palaeoproterozoic), spanning the time period from (2.5–1.6  Ga), is the first of the three sub-divisions (eras) of the Proterozoic Eon. The Paleoproterozoic is also the longest era of the Earth's ...
and bordering areas that suffered the regeneration at the
Neoproterozoic The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago. It is the last era of the Precambrian Supereon and the Proterozoic Eon; it is subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran periods. It is ...
. The
archean The Archean Eon ( , also spelled Archaean or Archæan) is the second of four geologic eons of Earth's history, representing the time from . The Archean was preceded by the Hadean Eon and followed by the Proterozoic. The Earth Earth ...
rocks members of Belo Horizonte complex and supracrustal sequences of the Paleoproterozoic is predominant. The area of Belo Horizonte complex includes the geomorphological unit called ''Depression of Belo Horizonte'', which represents about 70% of the municipality area and has its greatest expression in the northern
Ribeirão Arrudas Arrudas is a stream that begins its course in Contagem and goes down through Belo Horizonte in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. It is one of the source of Das Velhas River Rio das Velhas in Sabará. Ribeirão Arrudas is formed by many streams ...
pipeline. The
metasedimentary In geology, metasedimentary rock is a type of metamorphic rock. Such a rock was first formed through the deposition and solidification of sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and er ...
rocks has its area of occurrence on the south of Ribeirão Arrudas pipeline, constituting about 30% of the area of Belo Horizonte. The characteristics of this area are lithological diversities and rugged topography, which has its maximum expression in the ''Serra do Curral'' (Corral Ridge), the southern boundary of the municipality. Its soil comprises a succession of layers of rocks of varied composition, represented by
itabirite Itabirite, also known as banded-quartz hematite and hematite schist, is a laminated, metamorphosed oxide-facies iron formation in which the original chert or jasper bands have been recrystallized into megascopically distinguishable grains of quar ...
,
dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...
,
quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
,
phyllite Phyllite ( ) is a type of foliated metamorphic rock created from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation.Stephen Marshak ''Essentials of Geology'', 3rd ed. It is primarily compo ...
s and
schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...
s different from the general direction northwest–southeast and dip to the southeast. The hills of Belo Horizonte are part of the
Espinhaço Mountains The Espinhaço Mountains (, ) are a mountain range in Brazil. The range runs roughly north and south through the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia, extending for approximately . It forms the divide between the upper watershed of the São Francisco ...
and belong to the larger Itacolomi mountain chain. The highest point in the municipality is in the ''Serra do Curral'', reaching .


Parks

A centre for conservation and preservation of animals and plants it has also developed environmental education projects. The Zoo, which encompasses a total area of 1.4 million square meters, is located at the Foundation's headquarters and is regarded as one of the most complete in Latin America. It has a collection of close to 900 animals representing 200 species, from Brazil and other parts of the world, as well as the first public butterfly sanctuary in South America. Pampulha Ecological Park is administered by the Zoo-Botanical Foundation of Belo Horizonte and was inaugurated on May 21, 2004. It is of green area that offers to the population and the tourists a permanent programming of
environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
, cultural and patrimonial education. The city contains the
Baleia State Park The Baleia State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual da Baleia) is a state park in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It protects a rugged area in the cerrado biome near the state capital of Belo Horizonte. As of 2014 nothing had been done to implement t ...
, created in 1988 but still not implemented as of 2014. It contains part of the
Serra do Rola-Moça State Park The Serra do Rola-Moça State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual da Serra do Rola-Moça) is a state park in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It protects a rugged area in the transition zone between cerrado and Atlantic Forest. Springs in the park are imp ...
, created in 1994.


Climate

Belo Horizonte's has a
latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
at 19'55" in the South
tropical zone The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred ...
. Yearly temperatures average between . The
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
of the region is
tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...
(''Aw''), milder due to the elevation, with humid/warm summers and dry/mild winters. Belo Horizonte is located about from the sea. Even though inter-seasonal differences are not as pronounced as they are in temperate places, there is a contrast between spring and summer, and between fall and winter. The coldest month is generally July, with a lowest recorded temperature of . The hottest month is usually January, with a highest recorded temperature of . With an elevation of , Belo Horizonte is cooled considerably by the relatively high elevation, which suppresses high maximum air temperatures experienced in nearby cities at lower altitudes. Belo Horizonte's climate is mild throughout the year. Temperatures vary between , the average being . Winter is dry and mostly sunny, and summer is rainy.


Demographics


Ethnic groups

According to the 2010 IBGE Census, there were 2,258,096 people residing in the city of Belo Horizonte. The census revealed the following numbers: 1,110,034
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
people (46.7%), 995,167
Pardo ''Pardos'' (feminine ''pardas'') is a term used in the former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Americas to refer to the triracial descendants of Southern Europeans, Amerindians and West Africans. In some places they were defined as ne ...
(
Multiracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
) people (41.9%), 241,155
Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
people (10.2%), 25,270
Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
people (1.1%), 3,477
Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...
people (0.1%). In 2010, the city had 428,893 opposite-sex couples and 1,090
same-sex couple A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries ...
s. The population of Belo Horizonte was 53.1% female and 46.9% male. The Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, called
Greater Belo Horizonte Greater Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is the name usually used to describe the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, which is composed of 34 municipalities. As of 2013, it is the third largest metropolitan area of Brazil with more than Six million inhabi ...
, is the 3rd most populous of Brazil, after only
Greater São Paulo Greater São Paulo ( pt, Grande São Paulo) is a nonspecific term for one of the multiple definitions of the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil. Definitions Metropolitan Area A legally defined specific term, ''Reg ...
(with 19,672,582 people, first in Brazil and 5th in the world) and
Greater Rio de Janeiro Greater Rio de Janeiro, officially the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region (''Grande Rio'', officially ''Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro'', in Portuguese language, Portuguese) is a large metropolitan area located in Rio de Janeiro (sta ...
(with 14,387,000 people). The city is the 6th most populous of the country. During the 18th century, Minas Gerais received many
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
immigrants, mainly from
Northern Portugal The North Region ( pt, Região do Norte ) or Northern Portugal is the most populous region in Portugal, ahead of Lisbon, and the third most extensive by area. The region has 3,576,205 inhabitants according to the 2017 census, and its area is with ...
as well as many enslaved Africans. Belo Horizonte has a notable Italian influence; around 30% of the city's population have some Italian origin. The Italian culture is present in the cuisine, dance, and language. People of
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
,
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
, and Syrian-Lebanese ancestries also make up sizeable groups.


Religion

''Source:
IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information ...
2010. ''


Human development

In 1993, under mayor Patrus Ananias de Souza, the city started a series of innovations based on its citizens having the "
right to food The right to food, and its variations, is a human right protecting the right of people to feed themselves in dignity, implying that sufficient food is available, that people have the means to access it, and that it adequately meets the individual ...
." These include, for example, creating
farmers' market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...
s in the town to enable direct sales and regularly surveying market prices and posting the results across the city. The city's process of
participatory budgeting Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. Participatory budgeting allows ci ...
was linked with these innovations, as a result of which the
infant mortality rate Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of 1. This death toll is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the probability of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births. The under-five morta ...
was reduced by 50% in a decade.M. Jahi Chappell, 2018,
Beginning to end hunger: Food and the environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and beyond
'. Berkeley: University of California Press.
There is some evidence that these programs have helped support a higher quality of life for the local farmers partnering with the city and that this may be having positive effects on biodiversity in the Atlantic rainforest around the city. The city's development of these policies garnered the first "Future Policy Award" in 2009, awarded by the
World Future Council The World Future Council (WFC) is a German non-profit foundation with its headquarters in Hamburg. It works to pass on a healthy and sustainable planet with just and peaceful societies to future generations. FuturePolicy.org The website f ...
, a group of 50 activists (including
Frances Moore Lappé Frances Moore Lappé (born February 10, 1944) is an American researcher and author in the area of food and democracy policy. She is the author of 19 books including the three-million-copy selling 1971 book ''Diet for a Small Planet'', which the ...
,
Vandana Shiva Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalisation author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Gandhi ...
,
Wes Jackson Wes Jackson (born 1936) co-founded the Land Institute with Dana Jackson. He is also a member of the World Future Council. Early life and education Jackson was born and raised on a farm near Topeka, Kansas. After earning a BA in biology from K ...
, and
Youssou N'Dour Youssou N'Dour (, wo, Yuusu Nduur; also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour; born 1 October 1959) is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine describe ...
) concerned with the development and recognition of policies to promote a just and sustainable future. The city has undertaken an internationally heralded project called Vila Viva ("Living Village" in Portuguese) that promises to "urbanize" the poorest areas (''
favela Favela () is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term was first used in the Providência neighborhood in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had ...
s''), relocating families from areas with high risk of floods and landslides but keeping them in the same neighborhood, paving main avenues to allow public transportation, police and postal service to have access. All the work is done with 80% of locals, reducing unemployment and increasing family income. Former mayor Fernando da Mata Pimentel was nominated for
World Mayor World Mayor is a biennial award organized by the City Mayors Foundation since 2004. It intends to raise the profile of mayors worldwide, as well as honour those who have served their communities well and who have contributed to the well-being of c ...
in 2005 on the strength of these and other programs.


Economy

Belo Horizonte receives large numbers of visitors, as it is in the Brazilian main economic axis, exerting influence even on other states. Multinational and Brazilian companies, such as Google and Oi, maintain offices in the city. The service sector plays a very important role in the economy of Belo Horizonte, being responsible for 85% of the city's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with other industry making up most of the remaining 15%. Belo Horizonte has a developed industrial sector, being traditionally a hub of the Brazilian siderurgical and
metallurgical Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
industries, as the state of Minas Gerais has always been very rich in
minerals In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...
, specifically iron ore. Belo Horizonte is the distribution and processing centre of a rich agricultural and mining region and the nucleus of a burgeoning industrial complex. Production is centred on steel, steel products,
automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
s, and textiles. Gold,
manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...
, and
gemstone A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, ...
s mined in the surrounding region are processed in the city. The main industrial district of the city was set during the 1940s in
Contagem Contagem () is a city in the center of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. It is only from the capital, Belo Horizonte, and forms part of a metropolitan area with a population of 4.8 million. Geography The city belongs to the metropolitan meso ...
, a part of greater Belo Horizonte. Multinational companies like
FIAT Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
(which opened its plant in Betim in 1974),
Arcelor Arcelor S.A. was the world's largest steel producer in terms of turnover and the second largest in terms of steel output, with a turnover of €30.2 billion and shipments of 45 million metric tons of steel in 2004. The company was created in 2002 ...
, and
Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
have subsidiaries in the region, along with textiles like Group Rachelle Textil, Ematex and Cedro Textil,
cosmetic Cosmetic may refer to: *Cosmetics, or make-up, substances to enhance the beauty of the human body, apart from simple cleaning *Cosmetic, an adjective describing beauty, aesthetics, or appearance, especially concerning the human body *Cosmetic, a t ...
, food,
chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...
,
pharmaceuticals A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and rel ...
,
furnishing ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...
and
refractory In materials science, a refractory material or refractory is a material that is resistant to decomposition by heat, pressure, or chemical attack, and retains strength and form at high temperatures. Refractories are polycrystalline, polyphase, ...
companies. Among the companies headquartered in the city are steel producer Açominas (held by
Gerdau Gerdau is the largest producer of long steel in the Americas, with steel mills in Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. Currently, Gerdau has an installed capacity of 26 mill ...
, one of the largest multinationals originated in Brazil);
Usiminas Usiminas is one of the largest producers of steel in the Americas, with major steel mills in Brazil with a total capacity of 9.5 million metric tons of steel per year. The company accounts for 28% of total steel output in Brazil. Usiminas has an ...
; Belgo-Mineira (held by
Arcelor Arcelor S.A. was the world's largest steel producer in terms of turnover and the second largest in terms of steel output, with a turnover of €30.2 billion and shipments of 45 million metric tons of steel in 2004. The company was created in 2002 ...
); Acesita (partially held by Arcelor); mobile communication Vivo; and
Telecom Italia Mobile Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixe ...
, Dasein Executive Search, executive coaching company, as well as the
NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the List of stock exchanges, world's largest s ...
-listed electrical company
CEMIG CEMIG is a Brazilian power company headquartered in Belo Horizonte capital of the state of Minas Gerais. The company is one of main electricity concessionaires in Brazil, headquartered in the city of Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas G ...
. Leading steel product makers Sumitomo Metals of Japan and Vallourec of France also have plans to construct an integrated steel works on the outskirts of the city. There are also a large number of small enterprises in the technology sector with regional to nationwide success, particularly in the fields of
computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...
and biotechnology. Because of both governmental and private funding in the diversification of its economy, the city has become an international reference in Information Technology and
Biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...
, and is also cited because of the advanced corporate and university research in
Biodiesel Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat (tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil with ...
fuel. The number of jobs in the Information sector has been growing at annual rates above 50%. The Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area, composed of 33 cities under the capital's direct influence, is home to 16% of the country's biotechnology companies, with annual sales of over R$550 million. Projects in these fields are likely to expand because of integration between universities, the oil company
Petrobras Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by the portmanteau Petrobras (), is a state owned enterprise, state-owned Brazilian multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The company's name transla ...
and the
Brazilian Government The politics of Brazil take place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. The political and administrative or ...
. One of the largest events that ever took place in the city, the
Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and serving as the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribb ...
meeting, occurred in 2005 and attracted people from all over the world. For a long time it was marked by the predominance of its
industrial sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction ...
, but from the 1990s there has been a constant expansion of the
service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...
economy, particularly in
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
,
biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...
,
business tourism Business tourism or business travel is a more limited and focused subset of regular tourism. During business tourism (traveling), individuals are still working and being paid, but are doing so away from both their workplace and home. Some definiti ...
, fashion and the jewelry-making. The city is considered to be a strategic leader in the
Brazilian economy The economy of Brazil is historically the largest in Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere in nominal terms. The Brazilian economy is the third largest in the Americas. The economy is a middle income developing mixed economy. In 2022, acc ...
. The move towards
business tourism Business tourism or business travel is a more limited and focused subset of regular tourism. During business tourism (traveling), individuals are still working and being paid, but are doing so away from both their workplace and home. Some definiti ...
transformed the capital into a national hub for this segment of the
tourist industry Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...
. * In 2008, the city's GDP was R$42 billion (or about
US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
26,2 billion). * In 2008, the
Greater Belo Horizonte Greater Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is the name usually used to describe the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, which is composed of 34 municipalities. As of 2013, it is the third largest metropolitan area of Brazil with more than Six million inhabi ...
's GDP was R$98,5 billion (or about
US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
61 billion). * In 2008, the city's per capita income was R$17,313 (or
US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
10,820). In 2007, it was R$15,830http://www.pnbonline.com.br/display.asp?id=36736 (about US$9,893).


Government and politics


Education


Educational institutions

Several higher education institutions are located in Belo Horizonte, including: *
Baptist College of Minas Gerais The Baptist College of Minas Gerais (Faculdade Batista de Minas Gerais - FBMG) is Baptist college located in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It is affiliated with the Mineira Baptist Convention (Brazilian Baptist Convention). History It was founded in 199 ...
* Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG) * Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte (UNI-BH) * Centro Universitário Newton Paiva * Centro Universitário (UNA) * Escola Superior Dom Helder Câmara – Especializada em Direito * Faculdade Jesuíta de Filosofia e Teologia (FAJE) * Faculdade Pitágoras de Belo Horizonte (FP-BH) * Faculdades Kennedy (FKBH) * Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Minas Gerais (IFMG) *
Skema Business School SKEMA Business School (School of Knowledge Economy and Management) is a French business school, devoted to higher education and research. It has the legal status of a non-profit association under the French "1901 law". It was founded in 2009 as a ...
(SK) * Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (PUC-MG) *
Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais The State University of Minas Gerais. ( pt, Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais, UEMG) is a Brazilian public university. It is the third largest university in the state of Minas Gerais, second only to the Federal University of Minas Gerais a ...
(UEMG) (State University of Minas Gerais) *
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais The Federal University of Minas Gerais ( pt, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a sim ...
(UFMG) * Universidade José do Rosário Vellano (UNIFENAS) * Universidade FUMEC (FUMEC) * Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul Educacional


Transport


Airports

Belo Horizonte is served by three airports: * Tancredo Neves/Confins International Airport, dedicated to domestic and international traffic. It is located in the municipalities of Lagoa Santa and
Confins Confins is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. Its population as of 2020 is estimated to be 6,800 people. The area of the municipality is 42.008 km². The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizon ...
, from Belo Horizonte, and was opened in January 1984. Plans for gradual expansion to meet growing demand had been already drawn up from the airport's inception. The airport has one of the lowest rates of shutdown for bad weather in the country. It ran at limited capacity until 2005, when a large proportion of Pampulha Airport air traffic was transferred to Confins. There are direct international flights to/from
Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
,
Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
,
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
,
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
and
Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...
. * Pampulha – Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport, dedicated to domestic traffic; * Carlos Prates Airport, dedicated to general aviation.


Highways

The city is connected to the rest of Minas Gerais state and the country by a number of roadways.
Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
has the country's largest federal highway network. *
BR-040 BR-040 is a federal highway of Brazil. The road connects Brasilia to Rio de Janeiro. BR-040 Highway, Brazil The starting point of the highway is in Brasília at the junction with the BR-450 (Via EPIA) and BR-251 (Via EPCT). The road ends at Pra ...
connects Belo Horizonte to
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
(going south) and
Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...
(going northwest). It also links other cities in the state, such as
Juiz de Fora Juiz de Fora (, '' Outsider Judge''), also known as J.F., is a city in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, approximately from the state border with Rio de Janeiro. According to 2020 estimates the current population is about 57 ...
,
Conselheiro Lafaiete Conselheiro Lafaiete is a city of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It was known as Queluz until 1934, when it was renamed by decree, as a tribute to Counselor Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira It is situated 96 km south from Belo Horizonte, cap ...
,
Barbacena Barbacena is a municipality in the States of Brazil, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. As of 2020, the municipality had 138,204 inhabitants. The total area of the municipality is . It is in the foothills of the Serra da Mantiqueira south of the ...
,
Sete Lagoas Sete Lagoas (meaning 'Seven Lagoons' in Portuguese) is a city in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The municipal area is 537;km² while the population was 241,835 in 2020. Location Sete Lagoas is situated about 70 kilometres from Belo Horizon ...
, and Paracatu. *
BR-262 BR-262 is an east-west highway connecting the Brazilian states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. The highway runs from Vitória state capital of Espírito Santo to the Bolivian border at Corumbá, Mato Grosso ...
begins in
Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul () is one of the Midwestern states of Brazil. Neighboring Brazilian states are (from north clockwise) Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná. It also borders the countries of Paraguay, to the southwest, and ...
and ends in
Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...
, crossing
Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
from west to east. It links Belo Horizonte to Pará de Minas,
Araxá Araxá () is a municipality in Western Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Its estimated population by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) in 2020 is 107,337 inhabitants and the area of the municipality is , with making up the urban p ...
,
Manhuaçu Manhuaçu is a municipality in Eastern Minas Gerais state, in Brazil. Its population was 91,169 (2020) and its area is 628 km2. Location Located 260 km from the state capital of Belo Horizonte, it is near the important road junction of BR 2 ...
,
Uberaba Uberaba () is a city in the state of Minas Gerais, southeast Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Highlands at above sea level on the Uberaba River, and away from the state capital, Belo Horizonte. The city status was granted in 1856, and i ...
,
Governador Valadares Governador Valadares is a Brazilian municipality in the countryside of Minas Gerais. In 2020, its population was 281,046 inhabitants, thus being the ninth most populated city in the state. It is an economical axis of the middle valley of the Doce R ...
, and Vitória, the capital of
Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...
state. * BR-381 is an important federal highway. It connects Belo Horizonte to
São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
. *
MG-010 MG-010 is a state highway in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Its total length is 307.9 kilometers. Its route starts in Belo Horizonte and ends in the municipality of Rio Vermelho. Since the construction of the Belo Horizonte International Airport, in the mun ...
is a state highway that connects the capital to the
Tancredo Neves International Airport Belo Horizonte/Confins – Tancredo Neves International Airport , formerly called Confins International Airport is the primary international airport serving Belo Horizonte. Since 2 September 1986 the airport is named after Tancredo Neves, Tancred ...
, itself located in the municipalities of Confins and Lagoa Santa, which are part of the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte. Starting in 2005, several flights were transferred from the
Pampulha Regional Airport Pampulha–Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport is an airport serving Belo Horizonte, Brazil, located in the neighborhood of Pampulha. Since December 16, 2004 the airport is also named after the Minas Gerais-born poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade ...
to the international airport. To improve access to the international airport, MG-010 is being expanded (effectively duplicating its lanes). The city is also served by other minor roads such as state highways MG-020, MG-050, MG-030, and MG-433. There is also an East-West Express Way, which goes from the city to the nearby industrial centres of
Contagem Contagem () is a city in the center of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. It is only from the capital, Belo Horizonte, and forms part of a metropolitan area with a population of 4.8 million. Geography The city belongs to the metropolitan meso ...
and
Betim Betim is a town in Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is located at around . The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitan of Belo Horizonte (BH) and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. It is the fifth largest city in Minas Gerais and one of the 50 larg ...
(together having a population of ca. 900,000), and Anel Rodoviário, a kind of "beltway" – indeed it is not circumferential, but connects many highways, such as the federal (BR-ones) so it is not necessary for a large number of cars and trucks to pass through the city centre. Many of these roads are in poor condition, but in the last years many revitalization and rebuilding projects have been started.


Bus system

The bus system has a large number of bus lines going through all parts in the city, and is administrated by ''BHTRANS''. Among the upcoming projects are the expansion of the integration between bus lines and the
metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
, with integrated stations, many already in use. And the construction of bus corridors, with lanes and bus stops exclusively for the bus lines. Keeping buses from traffic congestions, making the trips more viable for commuters.


Railways

Belo Horizonte Metro Belo Horizonte Metro ( pt, Metrô de Belo Horizonte) is a rapid transit system serving the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. The system has one line which serves 19 stations. The Metro carried 54.4 million passenge ...
or MetroBH started operating at the end of the 1970s. There is one line, with 19 stations, from Vilarinho to Eldorado Station, in
Contagem Contagem () is a city in the center of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. It is only from the capital, Belo Horizonte, and forms part of a metropolitan area with a population of 4.8 million. Geography The city belongs to the metropolitan meso ...
, transporting over 160,000 people daily. The current projects of expansion include Line 2, linking the existing Calafate Station to the region of Barreiro. And Line 3, from the city's main bus terminal to São Inácio de Loyola,
Savassi Savassi is a neighborhood in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It is located at the Central-South zone city district. Savassi is known for having a large number of bars, pubs, clubs, cafés, bistros, diners, restaurants, nightlife and shopping commerce ...
economical district. Line 2 is planned to be overground (similar to the current line) and Line 3 is planned to be underground, passing through the city's financial centre, Praça Sete and Afonso Pena Avenue. Also, Line 1 is planned to be extended to Novo Eldorado Station.


Belo Horizonte Public Transportation statistics

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Belo Horizonte, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 85 min. 26% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 23 min, while 50% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 8.7 km, while 19% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.


Culture


Theatre and dance

Every two years, FIT BH, The International Theater Festival of Belo Horizonte, takes place in the city. This attracts artists from all over Brazil and worldwide. With the merger of two projects that would happen separately in 1994, one stage-based, organized by the Francisco Nunes Theater, and the other street-based, idealized by Grupo Galpão, came FIT-BH Palco & Rua. Produced every two years, under responsibility from the Belo Horizonte
City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
, through the Municipal Culture Office and the Association Movimento Teatro de Grupo of Minas Gerais, in the program there are street and stage shows, and also
seminar A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...
s, workshops, courses, talks, etc. The Annual Campaign for the Popularisation of Theatre takes place every year in January and February, offering dozens of plays in
theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
s all over the city at affordable prices. Several notable artistic groups originated in Belo Horizonte.
Grupo Corpo Grupo Corpo are a Brazilian dance theatre company founded in 1975. The group performs internationally and has been acclaimed by critics. Their routines are particularly known for challenging audience perceptions of ballet and modern dance. History ...
, which is perhaps the most famous
contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in ...
group in the country, was formed in the city in 1975. In March and April is the performance program from FID promoting contemporary dance in Belo Horizonte. The program presents groups from Belo Horizonte. For this project, the priority invitations go to the shows created by groups and choreographers living in the city. The purpose is to take shows and other activities such as workshops, talks and video screenings to the less privileged regions of the city regarding access to cultural assets. Belo Horizonte is also host to the Centro Mineiro de Danças Clássicas school.


Music

Clube da Esquina Clube da Esquina (, , in English "Corner Club") was a Brazilian music artists collective, originating in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. It is also the name of a double album from 1972. Clube da Esquina mixes rock and roll, progressive rock ...
is one of the most important
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
al movements in the musical history of Brazil. It originated in the mid-1960s, and since then its members have been hugely influential in Brazilian and even international music, some like Milton Nascimento and Toninho Horta achieving worldwide acclaim. Other people involved in the movement include musicians, songwriters, composers, conductors and lyricists, such as Tavinho Moura,
Wagner Tiso Wagner Tiso Veiga (born 12 December 1945) is a musician, arranger, conductor, pianist and composer from Brazil. Born in Três Pontas, Tiso learned music theory with Paulo Moura and specialised in keyboards. In 1970, he joined Som Imaginário, wo ...
, Andersen Viana,
Milton Nascimento Milton Nascimento (; born October 26, 1942), also known as Bituca, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has toured across the world. Nascimento has won five Grammy Awards, including Best World Music Album for his alb ...
,
Lô Borges Lô Borges (Born Salomão Borges Filho on January 10, 1952) is a Brazilian songwriter, singer, and guitarist. He was one of the founders of Clube da Esquina, a group of musicians that originated in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. He co-author ...
,
Beto Guedes Alberto de Castro Guedes (born August 13, 1951) is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Biography Beto Guedes has been playing in bands since he was a teenager. When he was 18 years old he took part in the V Singers International Fest ...
, Flávio Venturini,
Toninho Horta Antônio Maurício Horta de Melo (born December 2, 1948) is a Brazilian jazz guitarist and vocalist. In addition to composing and performing his own work, Horta has worked for many years as arranger or sideman for Brazilian artists such as El ...
,
Márcio Borges Márcio Borges (born on 20 January 1973 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a defender. He started his career playing for the Botafogo youth team. In Europe he played for Swiss side Yverdon-Sport and ...
and
Fernando Brant Fernando Rocha Brant (October 9, 1946 – June 12, 2015) was a Brazilian poet, lyricist and journalist, born in Caldas, Minas Gerais, Caldas, Minas Gerais. Brant's interest in music and literature began to increase while he studied law at Universi ...
, among others. The band Uakti, known for performing with self-built
musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
s, originated in Belo Horizonte under the influence of Walter Smetak and the Composition School from Bahia. Also, several nationally famous rock groups have been founded in Belo Horizonte, including
Jota Quest Jota Quest is a Brazilian pop rock band. The band was founded in 1993 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais as ''J. Quest'', but due to trademark issues with Hanna-Barbera, they renamed themselves ''Jota Quest'' (''jota'' being the Portuguese name ...
,
Pato Fu Pato Fu is a Brazilian indie rock band from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. The band was formed by lead singer & rhythm guitarist Fernanda Takai, lead guitarist John Ulhoa and bassist Ricardo Koctus, in September 1992. Long-time drummer Xande Ta ...
, Skank,
14 Bis The ''14-bis'' (french: Quatorze-bis), (), also known as ("bird of prey" in French), was a pioneer era, canard-style biplane designed and built by Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. In 1906, near Paris, the ''14-bis'' made a m ...
and Tianastácia. In later years, Belo Horizonte has been more frequently included in Brazilian tours of foreign mainstream and independent acts. Belo Horizonte is also known as the Brazilian Capital of
Metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed a ...
, hence the huge number of heavy metal bands (and the likes) founded there, especially in the 1980s. Most importantly, Overdose, the first metal band from BH and one of the first to gain prominence in Brazil;
Sepultura Sepultura (, "grave")Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 17. is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte. Formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera,Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 16. the band was a major force in the groove metal, thra ...
, the world's best known Brazilian metal band; and
Sarcófago Sarcófago was a Brazilian extreme metal band formed in 1985. They were fronted by Sepultura's original singer, Wagner Lamounier, and Geraldo Minelli. The front cover of the band's debut album, '' I.N.R.I.'', is regarded as a great influence o ...
, one of the founders of modern
black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...
. The
contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...
band
Diante do Trono Diante do Trono (; lit.: Before the Throne) is a Brazilian contemporary Christian music band formed in 1997 as a ministry of Lagoinha Church in Belo Horizonte. It is led by singer, songwriter and pastor Ana Paula Valadão. The group became po ...
, is also of Belo Horizonte. A short instrumental song by American band
Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million re ...
is named after the city on their album
Now, Then & Forever ''Now, Then & Forever'' is the twentieth studio album by American band Earth, Wind & Fire, released on September 10, 2013, by Legacy Recordings/Sony Music. The album reached No. 11 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and No. 6 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Alb ...
.


Museums

Belo Horizonte features a number of museums including the Mineiro Museum, the Abílio Barreto Historic Museum, Arts and Workmanship Museum, a Natural History Museum and the UFMG
Botanic Garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
s, a telephone museum, the Pampulha Art Museum, the Professor Taylor Gramke Mineralogy Museum, and the UFMG Conservatory. The puppet theatre group Giramundo was established here in 1970, and continues to maintain a puppetry museum hosting a collection of their creations. The Circuito Cultural Praça da Liberdade, located in the central region of Belo Horizonte, is the largest cultural circuit in Brazil. In all, there are eleven functioning
museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
s and cultural spaces: Arquivo Público Mineiro (Minas Gerais Public Archive), Biblioteca Pública Estadual Luiz de Bessa (Luiz de Bessa State Public Library), Cefar Liberdade, Centro de Arte Popular Cemig (Cemig Center of Popular Art), Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (Culture Center Bank of Brazil), Espaço do Conhecimento UFMG (UFMG Knowledge Space), Horizonte Sebrae – Casa da Economia Criativa (Sebrae Horizon – The House of Creative Economy), Memorial Minas Gerais Vale (Minas Gerais Memorial), Museu das Minas e do Metal (Mines and Metal Museum), Museu Mineiro (Minas Gerais Museum) and
Palácio da Liberdade The Palácio da Liberdade is a building in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, which was for several years the office of the government of Minas Gerais state. It was built in 1897. In the 1950s the Governor Juscelino Kubitschek Juscelino Kubitschek de ...
(Liberty Palace). Besides these, another three spaces are already in the process of being implemented: the Casa Fiat de Cultura (Fiat Culture House), CENA and Oi Futuro. The proposal, according to the Circuit manager, Cristiana Kumaira, is to strengthen the circuit in the world cultural context. "We are already on this path and are being careful to ensure that the activities, services and assistance fulfill the needs and expectations of both the local population and the tourists who come to Belo Horizonte from around the world. The Circuit is establishing itself as one more source of pride for the people of Minas Gerais," she stresses. Inaugurated in 2010, the Circuito Cultural Praça da Liberdade was created with the goal of exploring
cultural diversity Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture, the global monoculture, or a homogenization of cultures, akin to cultural evolution. The term "cultural diversity" can also refer to having different cu ...
, with interactive options open to the public, in an area of great symbolic, historical and architectural value for Belo Horizonte. The opportunity came with the transference of the Minas Gerais Government headquarters to the Cidade Administrativa (Administrative City), in Serra Verde. After they had been adapted, the old department buildings opened their doors and began to house museums and
cultural space In anthropology and geography, a cultural region, cultural sphere, cultural area or culture area refers to a geography with one relatively homogeneous human activity or complex of activities (culture). Such activities are often associated ...
s. The Circuito Cultural Praça da Liberdade is co-managed by the Instituto Sérgio Magnani (Institute) since June 2012, through a partnership signed with the Minas Gerais Government, and the museums/spaces are mostly run by private companies, which carry out investments in heritage recovery and building maintenance. According to Kumaira, this public-private partnership model allows large companies to participate and effectively contribute to the cultural advance of the city. "Beyond their fields of activities, the partners invest in the implantation and maintenance of museums, learning spaces, exhibition halls and shows, as well as memory centers that consolidate the history of Minas Gerais, presenting it either for free or at affordable prices," she adds. The Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden holds an important treasure of
folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...
, the Nativity of Pipiripau. Created during the 20th century, the craftsman Raimundo Machado, synchronizes 586 figures, distributed in 45 scenes, which tell the story of life and death of Jesus, mixed with its variety of
arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
and
crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...
. With 600,000 sq. m. of green area, the
UFMG The Federal University of Minas Gerais ( pt, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a sim ...
Museum of Natural History and Botanic Garden (MHN-JB) is a privileged ecological space that enables visitors to experience nature in a rich, multidisciplinary way. For 30 years, the mission of the MHN-JB has been to do research, to educate, and to meet the community's demand for service. It covers the areas of
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
,
archeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
, Environmental Education, Natural History,
Mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...
, and
Paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
. It has an Ecological Amphitheater, a Free Art atelier, a
greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...
, and an Interactive Room. One of its traditional exhibitions is the Pipiripau Nativity Crèche. Palácio das Artes, inaugurated in 1970, comprises three theaters, three
art galleries An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...
, a
movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
, a
bookstore Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...
, a coffee shop and photography exhibition space. The building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and it also houses the Minas Gerais Handcraft Center. The Pampulha Art Museum is located at the Pampulha Lake in Belo Horizonte in a building that originally housed the Pampulha Casino. The building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, commissioned by the then-mayor and future president of Brazil Juscelino Kubitschek in the early 1940s, with external grounds by landscaper
Roberto Burle Marx Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994) was a Brazilian landscape architect (as well as a painter, print maker, ecologist, naturalist, artist and musician) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous. He is accredite ...
. The building was the first project of Oscar Niemeyer, opened as a casino, and closed in 1946. In 1957, it was re-opened as the Art Museum. His design was influenced by the principles of Le Corbusier. The gardens of
Burle Marx Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994) was a Brazilian landscape architect (as well as a painter, print maker, ecologist, naturalist, artist and musician) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous. He is accredite ...
are a tribute to the tropical green. There are three sculptures, by Ceschiatti, Zamoiski and José Pedrosa. In 1996, it won new multimedia rooms, library, café bar, a souvenir shop and technical infrastructure. The MAP has an impressive collection of 1,600 works.http://www.youblisher.com/files/publications/30/174017/pdf.pdf


Architecture

Belo Horizonte has several significant cultural landmarks, many of them situated in the Pampulha district, where there are notable examples of Brazilian
contemporary architecture Contemporary architecture is the architecture of the 21st century. No single style is dominant. Contemporary architects work in several different styles, from postmodernism, high-tech architecture and new interpretations of traditional architec ...
. Under the leadership of the then mayor of city,
Juscelino Kubitschek Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...
, architects and artists such as
Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
, landscaper
Burle Marx Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994) was a Brazilian landscape architect (as well as a painter, print maker, ecologist, naturalist, artist and musician) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous. He is accredite ...
, and painter
Candido Portinari Candido Portinari (December 29, 1903 – February 6, 1962) was a Brazilian painter. He is considered one of the most important Brazilian painters as well as a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting. Portinari ...
, started a type of modern architecture and art here that was greatly developed later with the construction of Brazil's new capital, Brasilia, also led by the now president Juscelino (aka JK). It is at the Pampulha complex that one can see the routes of this new architecture movement. The modern and protomodern architecture can also be seen all over Belo Horizonte, either in emblematic 1950's buildings such as Edificio Acaiaca, Conjunto JK, Hotel Amazonas and former Hotel Excelsior, all reflecting the modernity culture of the first planned capital of Brazil. The Pampulha Park area includes one of the largest
soccer stadium Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-p ...
s in the world, the
Mineirão Mineirão (), officially Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto (''Governor Magalhães Pinto Stadium'') is the largest football stadium in the state of Minas Gerais. It was established in 1965, and it is located in Belo Horizonte. It served as a ...
stadium, and the São Francisco de Assis Church, widely known as Igreja da Pampulha, designed by Brazilian
Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
architect
Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
. In Pampulha there is also the
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais The Federal University of Minas Gerais ( pt, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a sim ...
campus, whose buildings themselves are important contributions to the city's architecture. Other notable buildings include the Mesbla and Niemeyer buildings. In the downtown area, landmarks include the
São José Church The São José church is an Eclecticism in architecture, eclectic-style church with Gothic Revival architecture, Neo-Gothic influence located in downtown Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It was built by the Redemptorists, Redemptorist congre ...
, the Praça da Estação (Station Square), which is an old train station that now is also the Museum of Arts and Workmanship, the Municipal Park, the famous Sete de Setembro Square, where an obelisk built in 1922 marks the one hundred years of
Brazilian independence The Independence of Brazil comprised a series of political and military events that led to the independence of the Kingdom of Brazil from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves as the Brazilian Empire. Most of the events occurre ...
from Portugal. Near Central the area, in the Lourdes neighborhood, the Lourdes Basilica, is an example of
Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
. The Nossa Senhora de Fátima Church, in Santo Agostinho neighborhood, is situated in
Carlos Chagas Carlos Justiniano Ribeiro Chagas, or Carlos Chagas (; July 9, 1879 – November 8, 1934), was a Brazilian sanitary physician, scientist, and bacteriologist who worked as a clinician and researcher. He discovered Chagas disease, also called ''Ame ...
Square. Both churches are referred to as the Assembléia Church and the Assembléia Square because of their proximity to the state's legislative assembly. Next to the downtown region is the Savassi district, known for fine restaurants and as a centre of cultural events as well as the best of the city's
nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, c ...
. Many landmarks are located there, such as the Praça da Liberdade (Liberty Square), and its surrounding buildings, including the former Executive Offices of the governor called the Palácio da Liberdade (Liberty Palace), the first building to be finished during the city's planned development in the late 1890s. The government offices moved to the "Cidade Administrativa" in 2010. This complex is made by a few massive buildings just outside the city. Nowadays, the "palaces" are being turned into museums. Still on Savassi, the meeting point of many social groups, especially the youth, is "Praça da Savassi" (Savassi Square), which is not exactly a square, and more a crossing between two major avenues (
Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...
and Cristóvão Colombo), and gathers some of the busiest bars and pubs (called locally "botecos" or "botequins") in town. Another important landmark is Praça do Papa (Pope's Square), located at a high point south of the downtown area, with its great view of the entire city. It is named for July 1, 1980, visit by
John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
, who held a youth mass there. The nearby Parque das Mangabeiras (Mangabeiras Park) features extensive wildlife, and-owing to its considerable size-has its own bus service, which operates solely within the confines of the park. On Sundays, Afonso Pena Avenue hosts Latin America's biggest open-air market. This is the Market of Arts and Handicrafts, most commonly known as Feira Hippie (hippie fair). Every Sunday morning 70,000 visitors find food, drinks, clothes, furniture, earrings, shoes and almost anything else.


Food and drink

The regional Minas Gerais' food and the now internationally known drink of
cachaça ''Cachaça'' () is a distilled spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice. Also known as ''pinga'', ''caninha'', and other names, it is the most popular spirit among distilled alcoholic beverages in Brazil.Cavalcante, Messias Soares. Todos os no ...
are very popular and highly rated in the capital. Belo Horizonte is internationally known as the "capital of neighborhood bars." Every year since 1999, the city hosts th
Comida di Buteco
festival ("Pub Foods", in an approximate translation), in which a panel selects 41 bars to be visited, and then elects the one with the best appetizers using the theme ingredient of each year. The Festival is so successful that its brand was already sold to other 21 regions in Brazil (Belém, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Campinas, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Goiás, Juiz de Fora, Manaus, Montes Claros, Poços de Caldas, Porto Alegre, Recife, Ribeirão Preto, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Uberlândia e Vale do Aço). The neighborhoods and areas of Savassi, Lourdes, Mercado Central, Santa Tereza and Pampulha concentrate most of the city's
restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
s and bars.


Sport


Football

As in the rest of Brazil,
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
is the most popular sport. The city's major teams are
Atlético Mineiro Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to: Sports Teams Athletico *Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy *Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...
, Cruzeiro and América Mineiro. The city also has one of the biggest football stadiums in the world, the
Mineirão Mineirão (), officially Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto (''Governor Magalhães Pinto Stadium'') is the largest football stadium in the state of Minas Gerais. It was established in 1965, and it is located in Belo Horizonte. It served as a ...
, which opened in 1965. The older Independência Stadium was the site of the
FIFA World Cup 1950 The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. The planned 1942 and 1946 World Cups were ...
game, when the United States beat England in a 1–0 win. Mineirão, officially called Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto, was built to provide the city of Belo Horizonte with a larger alternative for Independência Stadium, then the prime venue of the city. The stadium was meant to become the most modern stadium of Brazil and the new home of Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro. Construction took almost five years, and on September 5, 1965, Mineirão officially opened. Mineirão hardly changed in the following decades, and in the 1990s still had its original capacity. When Brazil won their bid to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it was clear that Mineirão needed to undergo a large redevelopment. The project included the complete reconstruction of the bottom tier, an extension of the roof, and further refurbishments to upgrade the stadium to
FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
standards. Building works took a total of three years, and were completed in December 2012. The first match at the reopened Mineirão was played on February 3, 2013, with a state championship match between Cruzeiro and Atlético. While Cruzeiro agreed on a lease to play the next 25 years at Mineirão, Atlético is currently building his own arena, Arena MRV, which is planned to be opened at the end of 2022. Atlético's new arena will be the most modern football stadium in Latin America and the second largest sports arena in the state of Minas Gerais, with a capacity of over 46,000 people. Mineirão hosted a total of six matches during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The stadium also was one of the playing venues of the
2013 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth FIFA Confederations Cup, which was held in Brazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tourna ...
and the
Olympic football tournament Football at the Summer Olympics, referred to as the Olympic Football Tournament, has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 (the inaugural Games) and 1932 (in an attempt to promote the new FIFA Wo ...
in 2016. In addition to football, Belo Horizonte has one of the largest attendances at
volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
matches in the entire country. They are played either at
Mineirinho Mineirinho Arena (officially Estádio Jornalista Felipe Drummond), sometimes called just Mineirinho, is the biggest indoor sporting arena in Brazil. Located in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the arena holds 25,000 people. Mineirinho is located in the ...
, home of Brazil's national volleyball team, or at
Minas Tênis Clube Minas Tênis Clube (short, just ''Minas'') is a social, recreational and sports club from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. By 2013, it has more than 73,000 members. Its patrimony comprises two urban units, the Minas I and Minas II, and two country units, ...
.


Other sports

Belo Horizonte is home to 2015 French Open men's doubles champion and former World no. 1 doubles player
Marcelo Melo Marcelo is a given name, the Spanish and Portuguese form of Marcellus. The Italian version of the name is Marcello, differing in having an additional "l". Marcelo may refer to: * Marcelo Costa de Andrade (born 1967), Brazilian serial killer, rapi ...
as well as 2016 Australian Open men's doubles and
mixed doubles Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and badminton (where it is known as ...
champion
Bruno Soares Bruno Fraga Soares (; born 27 February 1982) is a Brazilian former professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. A doubles specialist, Soares won six major titles, the Australian Open and US Open in 2016 alongside Jamie Murray, and ...
. The
Minas Tênis Clube Minas Tênis Clube (short, just ''Minas'') is a social, recreational and sports club from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. By 2013, it has more than 73,000 members. Its patrimony comprises two urban units, the Minas I and Minas II, and two country units, ...
is a multi-sport club that plays in the
Novo Basquete Brasil Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB) (English: New Basketball Brazil) is the Brazilian premier professional men's basketball league. It is organized by the Liga Nacional de Basquete (LNB) (National Basketball League), in a new format of Brazil's previous t ...
,
Liga Nacional de Futsal The Liga Nacional de Futsal (LNF) is the premier futsal league in Brazil, and was created in 1996 with the purpose of setting up a championship with the best futsal teams of the country, corresponding to the Brazilian Football Championship Séri ...
,
Brazilian Men's Volleyball Superliga The Brazilian Volleyball Super League ( pt, Superliga Brasileira de Voleibol) is the top level Brazilian professional volleyball competition. It is organized by the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation. It shares the same name with the women's tou ...
and
Brazilian Women's Volleyball Superliga The Brazilian Volleyball Super League ( pt, Superliga Brasileira de Voleibol) is the top level Brazilian professional volleyball competition. It is organized by the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation. It shares the same name as the men's tourn ...
.


International relations

Belo Horizonte is twinned with: *
Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, United States (1965) *
Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...
, Angola (1968) *
Zahlé Zahlé ( ar, زَحْلة) is the capital and the largest city of Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon. With around 150,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Lebanon after Beirut and Tripoli and the fourth largest taking the whole urban area (t ...
, Lebanon (1974) *
Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...
, Spain (1975) *
Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...
, Portugal (1986) *
Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
, Belarus (1987) *
Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
, Cuba (1995) *
Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...
, Palestine (1999) *
Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
, Syria (2001) *
Masaya Masaya () is the capital city of Masaya Department in Nicaragua. It is situated approximately 14 km west of Granada and 31 km southeast of Managua. It is located just east of the Masaya Volcano, an active volcano from which the cit ...
, Nicaragua (2002) *
Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
, United States (2003) *
Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
, Libya (2003) * Cuenca, Ecuador (2004) *
Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...
, Honduras (2004) *
Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...
, United States (2006) *
Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
, Nigeria (2011)


Notes


References


External links


City Hall of Belo Horizonte website
{{Authority control Populated places established in 1701 Planned cities in Brazil 1701 establishments in Brazil Municipalities in Minas Gerais