Belo Horizonte

Oscar Niemeyer: chapel of São Francisco

Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Belo Horizonte, city, southern Minas Gerais estado (state), southeastern Brazil. It lies on the western slope of the Espinhaço Mountains, at an elevation of 2,720 feet (830 metres).

The first of Brazil’s planned cities, Belo Horizonte occupies a wide plateau encircled by the Curral del Rey Mountains, a hilly ridge forming the “beautiful horizon” for which the city was named. Belo Horizonte lies on the eastern edge of the sertão, or dry interior, of Brazil. The site was chosen in the late 19th century after the city of Ouro Preto, enclosed within a narrow valley 50 miles (80 km) southeast, was abandoned as the state capital because it could not accommodate the necessary expansions. Belo Horizonte was laid out on a grid, modeled after Washington, D.C., in the United States and La Plata in Argentina. The city was inaugurated as the capital of Minas Gerais in 1897 under the name Cidade de Minas, adopting its present name in 1901. Originally designed with an area of 8 square miles (20 square km), Belo Horizonte is now many times that size, having surpassed a target population of 200,000 people by 1925.

Belo Horizonte is the hub of the state’s large central region, with extensive mining and livestock activity throughout the sertão west of the city and heavy industry in its suburbs. It is the regional commercial centre as well, with vigorous activity in banking, commerce, and administration. The city’s older, longer-established industries include publishing, textiles, furniture, and food processing. The steady growth of heavy industry since 1950, however, has made Belo Horizonte one of the largest industrial centres in Brazil. Electrical generating facilities and plants manufacturing and working iron and steel have been established, primarily in the industrial suburb of Contagem, and a large oil refinery and automobile factories have been constructed in nearby Betim. Auto parts and consumer goods industries have multiplied in their wake.

Despite the upsurge in industrial activity, Belo Horizonte has remained relatively pollution free, and a considerable number of tourists are attracted by the impressive buildings and the wide tree-lined avenues radiating from the city centre like the spokes of a wheel. The nearby suburb of Pampulha is noted for its bold architecture, exemplified by the Chapel of São Francisco, designed by Oscar Niemeyer and decorated by Cándido Portinari, and by the Mineirão stadium, one of the largest football (soccer) stadiums in the country. Notable sights in the city centre include the Municipal Park, the broad tree-lined Afonso Pena Avenue, and the Liberdade Palácio (Portuguese: “Freedom Palace”), which houses the governor’s offices.

Belo Horizonte is an important cultural centre, having several museums, including the Palace of the Arts and the Mineiro Museum, as well as a music conservatory, a ballet school, a technical college, and a wide range of secondary and primary schools. The Federal University of Minas Gerais (1927) and the Catholic University of Minas Gerais (1958) are situated in Belo Horizonte. The city has a subway, and major highways and railroads extend from the city in all directions, linking it to communities in the sertão as well as to the main population centres of Brazil’s Atlantic coast. A domestic airport in Pampulha serves the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, and there is an international airport on the outskirts at Confins. Pop. (2010) 2,375,151; metro. area, 5,414,701.