Brasília

Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. It is famous for its urban planning, daring architecture and rapid population growth. It is located in the Brazilian Federal District. In English, the diacritic mark on the í is often omitted and the name written Brasilia.

Location

Brasília is located in a Federal District, created from the state of Goiás in the Mid-West region of the country. The District is bordered by the Preto River in the east and by the Descoberto River to the west. Brasília is situated on a 1000 m high plateau called the Planalto Central. The city is located at 15°45' South, 47°57' West (-15.75, -47.95). Brasilia is 207 km from Goiânia; 1,531 km. from Salvador; 716 km. from Belo Horizonte; and 1,015 km. from São Paulo.

Population and communications

Since Brasília is less than 50 years old (2005), only about half of the city's population consists of people born there. Most other inhabitants have moved in from the surrounding states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, as well as from the North Eastern states and Rio de Janeiro.

The city was originally planned for 500,000 people, but the total population of Brasilia has already reached 2.2 million (2004 est.), when the surrounding towns, known as satellite cities, are considered. Central Brasília, known as the Plano Piloto, has a population of around 200,000 and still has some areas in the North Wing for expansion. Most people, however, live in these satellite cities created to house the exceeding population. The most important of these towns are: Ceilândia 350,000; Taguatinga 243,000; Sobradinho 130,000; Planaltina 150,000; and Gama 131,000. Another large part of the population lives in the so-called dormitory cities in the surrounding State of Goiás-- Luziânia, Águas Lindas de Goiás, Planaltina de Goiás, Cidade Ocidental and Valparaíso are some of the largest of these.

Brasília is just one of the 29 administrative regions within a federal district that is 5,822 square km in area [1]. Officially, only 'Asa Sul' (South Wing), 'Asa Norte' (North Wing), and the central area of 'Plano Piloto' (Pilot Plan) are parts of Brasília. Unofficially, however, Brasília can mean both the 'Plano Piloto' area and all of its administrative regions and satellite cities; hence, the term is often used to refer to the federal district as a whole.

Whilst most of the transportation within the federal district occurs via motorways and buses, a basic underground railway system, the Brasília Metro, also provides transportation between Brasilia and the satellite cities of Guara, Ceilandia, Taguatinga and Samambaia, through Asa Sul. It also links Park Shopping, one of the city's largest shopping centres, with a few other terminals in the south and central areas of the city; nevertheless, it does not extend into the city's northern half. Aside from the underground railway and the more comprehensive bus-based public transportation system, there is also a railway connection with São Paulo, but no passenger trains operate any longer.

Brasília is served by roads that link the city to all other regions of the country. It is also a national hub for air transport. It is served by Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport, which currently (2005) has the third largest air traffic in the country. Most international flights, however, require connections through São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro.

Climate

Brasília has dry winters and wet summers. During the dry season, the relative humidity of the air reaches critical levels during the hottest times of the day.

Maximum temperatures average 28 °C. During the dry season the temperature decreases and can reach daily lows of 13 °C in July. Maximum averages of 25 °C are still the norm.

The average temperature is 20.5 °C. The hottest month is September, with an average high of 28 °C and an average low of 16 °C. The coolest month is July, with an average high of 25 °C and an average low of 13 °C. The monthly difference between the average high is around 3 °C and the average low 5 °C.

The absolute minimum registered was 1.6°C and the maximum absolute 34.1°C.

Education

In education, Brasília has the best indicators in the country. The literacy rate is 93.7%, according to the Human Development Index. The city has several universities. The most important public university is the University of Brasília (UnB). Centro Universitário de Brasília (UniCEUB) and Universidade Católica (UCB) are the largest private universities. As in the other Brazilian states, basic education (8 grades) is public and run by the government. However, many of the best schools are privately owned and run.

Government

The federal district has an autonomous government and legislative powers, but the judiciary is upheld by the Union. The District Governor is elected directly for a 4-year term. Local laws are issued by a legislative assembly also elected by the local population. The district also has the status of a federal state in many aspects. It has representatives both in the Lower House of Congress (Câmara Federal) as in the national Senate. Moreover, Brasília is home to the country's federal government. The national executive, legislative and judicial powers are all located there.

A planned city

History

President Juscelino Kubitschek ordered the construction of Brasília. It is a planned city. The main urban planner was Lúcio Costa. Oscar Niemeyer was the chief architect to most of the public buildings and Roberto Burle Marx was the landscape designer. The city plan was based on the ideas of Le Corbusier. Brasilia was built in 41 months, from 1956 to April 21, 1960 when it was officially inaugurated.

From 1763 to 1960 Rio de Janeiro was the capital of Brazil, and resources tended to be centred on the south east region of Brazil. Brasilia’s geographically central location in the middle of the country made for a more neutral federal capital. However, the placement of Brazil's capital in the interior actually dates back to the first republican constitution of 1891, which defined where the federal district should be placed, but the placement was not planned until 1922. More importantly, Brasilia’s location would promote the development of Brazil's central region and better integrate the entire territory of Brazil. Some say the real reason was to move the government to a place far from the masses.

According to legend, in 1883 the Italian priest Don Bosco had a prophetic dream in which he described a futuristic city that roughly fitted Brasília's location. Today, in Brasília, there are many references to this educator who founded the Salesian order. One of the main cathedrals carries his name.

Design

Lúcio Costa’s plan for the city was detailed and thorough. It stipulates which zones are to be residential and which are to be commercial. It limits where industries can settle, where certain buildings can be built and how tall those buildings can be etc.

Costa had insisted that Brasilia be shaped like a butterfly. However, most people think that the city is shaped like an aeroplane, instead.

The fuselage of the aeroplane contains the ministries, government buildings, the senate and chamber of deputies and a futuristic cathedral, designed by Oscar Niemeyer. There is also a tall television tower, with spectacular views of the city and the lake.

The wings of the aeroplane are named the North Wing and South Wing: each is roughly 7 km. in length. The avenue between the lake and the wings, called L2 Sul or L2 Norte, depending on which wing it’s on, has churches, schools and hospitals.

A wide, high-speed avenue, called the Eixo, connects the two wings by passing under a central bus station, where the banking sector (Sector Bancário) and hotel sector (Sector Hoteleiro) are located. The 100s and 300s addresses are on one side of the Eixo, and 200s and 400s are on the other. There are residential areas on these streets made up of blocks of flats, named Super Quadra Sul or Super Quadra Norte. The blocks are filled with three or six-storey buildings. Each has eleven buildings, identified by letter, with schools and churches in areas placed in between them. Commercial streets typically separate Superquadra blocks from each other. Green space and trees make these areas very pleasant to inhabit, and residents of the city affirm that it is one of the best cities in which to raise children.

There is also a zoo close to the airport with animals native to the Cerrado area. Embassies, recreational clubs and luxury homes surround the lake, and an enormous park, called the 'Parque da Cidade' (City Park), gives much-needed space for cycling, jogging and contact with nature.

One major criticism of Brasília is that it was not designed on a pedestrian scale. Pedestrians were not taken much into consideration during the advent of the motor age, when the city was developed. In the original plan there were no traffic lights - all cars travelled over overpasses and through tunnels to avoid intersecting traffic. Today, with half a million people living in the Plano Piloto (the Pilot Plan), the plan soon became out-dated. Pedestrians had to walk long distances between points of interest and the high speed avenues were dangerous to navigate. An underground railway has been recently built to alleviate these problems. A line was completed for the South Wing, which continues to the major satellite city of Taguatinga. Whilst public transportation is plentiful, the car remains popular as a means of transportation in Brasília. A popular saying is that the inhabitants are born with wheels instead of feet.

Another criticism of Brasilia is the displacement of poor residents to far away satellite towns like Taguatinga, Gama, Ceilândia and Sobradinho. Buses and a surface rapid transit system connect these cities to the centre. Inhabitants of these satellite towns live in conditions inferior to those of the Pilot Plan. When one talks of Brasília, these satellite cities are rarely taken into consideration, even though the population of these cities far surpasses that of the Pilot Plan. Some, like Taguatinga, are now larger than Brasília itself.

According to the original plan -- which Brasilia must follow -- the city is constantly under construction.

UNESCO has declared Brasília a World Heritage Site.

Mystical Brasília

One aspect that is usually unknown by visitors to Brasília is that it has attracted many members of offbeat religious sects and esoteric cults that have come here in what they see as the anticipation of the dawn of a new age — sects that embrace reincarnation and universal oneness, academics and sci-fi enthusiasts who associate Brasilia with ancient Egypt or the lost city of Atlantis. Land was given to almost any religous group that was legally constituted so many non-mainstream groups were able to built their temples or churches at low cost and exempt of taxes.

Their dreams are fed by an alien-looking cityscape, a showcase for Modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer. Among his creations are the twin towers of the Brazilian National Congress, between which the sun rises, Stonehenge-like, on April 21, the date the capital was officially moved from Rio de Janeiro.

There is also the famous prophecy about the future building of Brasília. In 1883, an Italian priest named Dom Bosco had a strange dream of a land abundant in precious metals and oil that would be discovered between the 15th and 20th parallels. "There a grand civilization will appear, a Promised Land flowing with milk and honey," the priest recorded in his journal. "These things will happen in the third generation."

Many believe that Brasilia, situated between the 15th and 16th parallels, is that place. The man who made the city a reality, former Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek, thought so as well.

There are many buildings with pyramidal designs and a university, the UPIS, founded by Brazil's most famous UFO investigator, General Moacyr Uchoa who supposedly had close encounters with alien beings near Alexânia, west of Brasília. One of the history teachers at that school was Yara Kern, a U.S.-trained Egyptologist who concluded, after six years of study, that Kubitschek was the reincarnation of the pharaoh Akhnaton and Brasilia was the modern version of Akhnaton's made-to-order capital along the banks of the Nile

The most impressive building in the city from a religious point of view is the utopian Legion of Goodwill Temple, a seven-sided, seven-story pyramid topped by what sources call the world's largest crystal.

Other tourist points are the University of Peace and isolated religious communities such as the Eclectic City, founded by the pilot for one of Brazil's presidents, and Valley of the Dawn, where women wear medieval-style purple and black dresses, silver tiaras, glittering veils, and cone hats. There is an enormous temple with a statue of the great spirit White Arrow and an artificial lake hemmed by pyramids and wooden cutouts of Afro-Brazilian goddesses.

Farther out there is the famous João de Deus, a spiritual surgeon who operates on patients in Abadiânia in Goiás, and the Chapada dos Veadeiros national park north of the city where the small community of Alto Paraíso de Goiás has attracted New Agers, Rajneesh, and assorted mystical groups.