Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte (a Portuguese name meaning "beautiful horizon", pronounced 'bÉ›.lÉ™ÊŠ - É™ÊŠ.É¹iË.'zÉ'n.teÉª) is the third largest metropolitan area and fourth largest city in Brazil (after SÃ£o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador). It is the capital of Minas Gerais state, located in the southeastern region of the country. With a population of almost 2.4 million and over 5 million in the official metropolitan area, Belo Horizonte — or "BeagÃ¡" as it is more familiarly known from the sound of its initials BH in Portuguese — is a place of intense economical and cultural activity. It has a good infrastructure for national and international events.

The first establishments in the region ocurred in the early 1700's, but the city as it is known today was planned and constructed in the 1890's, in order to replace Ouro Preto as the capital of Minas Gerais. It is nowadays notorious for the contrast between contemporary and classical buildings, being in fact the location of many modern Brazilian architecture icons, most notably the Pampulha Church.

History

The metropolis was once a small village, founded by JoÃ£o Leite da Silva Ortiz, a prospector from SÃ£o Paulo. Having found a location with a pleasant weather, a nice landscape and a good soil for farming, the explorer settled in the region in 1701, quiting an expedition to find gold. He then established a farm called "Curral d'el Rey" - archaic Portuguese for the "King's Corral". 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 farms. Most of these were built mainly by the Faria and Gutierrez families, being the terrains owned by the Gutierrez estabilished in a region that becamed a neighbouhood named after them. This particular family still is one of the richest families in Belo Horizonte, actually owning Telemar, one of the country's most successful telecommunication companies.

A small farm in Curral del Rey

Another important growth factor of the village were the immigrants from the SÃ£o Francisco river region, who had to pass through Curral del Rey in order to reach southern parts of Brazil. Travelers usually visited a small wooden chapel, where they prayed for a safe trip. Due to that, the chapel was named Capela da Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem, which means "Chapel of Our Lady of the Good Trip". Years later it was upgraded to a bigger church.

The previous capital of Minas Gerais, Ouro Preto, was a symbol of both the monarchic Brazilian Empire and the period when most of Brazilian income was due to mining, and that never pleased the members of the InconfidÃªncia Mineira, republican intelectuals that 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 set.

In 1893, due to good climatic and topografic conditions, Curral Del Rey was elected by Minas Gerais governor Afonso Pena from other cities as the spot for the new economical and cultural center of the state, under the new name of "Cidade de Minas", or Minas City.

The town planner from ParÃ¡ AarÃ£o Reis was then set to design the first planned city of Brazil, and then Cidade de Minas was inaugurated finally in 1897, with many unfinished constructions as the Brazilian Government set a deadline for it's completion. Inhabitation of the city was subsided by the local government, by the concession of free empty lots and funding for building houses. An interesting feature of Belo Horizonte he designed was the downtown street plan, featuring a regular array of perpendicular and diagonal streets, named after Brazilian states and Brazilian indigenous tribes.

Belo Horizonte was the first planned city in Brazil

In 1906 the name was then changed to Belo Horizonte, and so far the city was experiencing a considerable industrial expansion that increased the city's commerce and service sectors.

The city's planning did not count on it's populational growth afterwards, which was specially intense in the last twenty years of the 20th century. The city now deals with a number of infrastructure problems - about 20% of the population has no access to the sewage network, and floods that usually happen during the rainy season (November to March) are a big problem in the local Favelas, as houses are destroyed and people are killed.

Economy

Belo Horizonte had never been a popular destination among tourists, as it lacks one of the main touristic features of Brazil - beaches. However, it receives annualy great amounts of visitors, as it is in the Brazilian main economical axis with regional influence even on regions of other states. Both multinational and Brazilian companies, like Google and Oi, maintain their headquarters in the city.

An office building in Savassi region

The service sector plays a very important role in the economy of Belo Horizonte, being responsible for 85% of the city's GDP, with the industry making up for most of the remaining 15%.

Belo Horizonte has a developed industrial sector, being traditionally a pole of the Brazilian siderurgical and metallurgical industries, as the state of Minas Gerais has always been very rich in minerals, specially iron ore. The main industrial district of the city was set during the 40s in Contagem, a part of greater Belo Horizonte. Multinational companies like FIAT, Arcelor, Toshiba have subsidiaries in the region, along with other textile, cosmetic, food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, furnishing and refractory companies.

Due to both governmental and private funding in the diversification of it's economy, the city had become an international reference in Information Technology and Biotechnology, siting advanced researches in Biodiesel fuel. Projects in these fields are most likely to expand due to integration between universities, oil company Petrobras and the Brazilian Government. Over 16% of the Brazilian biotechnological industries are located in Belo Horizonte, with annual revenues of more than US$550 million.

During the past years, the city has done great investments in "business-tourism", by promoting more than 3 thousand national or international events yearly. One of the greatest events that ever happened in the city, the IDB meeting, took place in 2005 and atracted people from everywhere in the world.

Notable landmarks

Liberty Square

Belo Horizonte has plenty of significant landmarks, many of them situated in the Pampulha district, where there are very symbolic pieces of the Brazilian contemporary architecture. These include one of the largest football stadiums of the world, the MineirÃ£o stadium, and the SÃ£o Francisco de Assis Church, widely known as Igreja da Pampulha, designed by famous modern school architect Oscar Niemeyer. In Pampulha there is also the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais campus, where the buildings themselves are important contributions to the city architecture.

The Serra do Curral mountains are the official symbol of the city

In downtown Belo Horizonte, there are the neogothic Boa Viagem Cathedral, the Lourdes Basilica, the PraÃ§a da EstaÃ§Ã£o, which is an old train station that now is also the Museum of Arts and Workmanship, the Municipal Park, and the Nossa Senhora de FÃ¡tima church situated in Carlos Chagas square, both referred to as AssemblÃ©ia Church and AssemblÃ©ia Square due to their proximity to the state's legislative assembly.

Next to downtown is the famous Savassi region, where most of gastronomic and cultural activities occur, as well as the best of the city's nightlife. Many landmarks take place there, like the PraÃ§a da Liberdade or Liberty Square, and it's surrounding buildings, including the old Governor's house (Liberty Palace), the first building to be finished during the city's planned development in the 1890's.

Modern office buildings at Afonso Penna Avenue

There is also the "Rua do Amendoim" (Peanut Street), where parked automobiles appear to roll upwards, defying gravity. Whether this is an illusion or a magnetic phenomenon is left to the visitor to decide. However, most of the effect seems to have disappeared due to housing development in the area, but many people still believe that the street is magic.

Another important landmark is PraÃ§a do Papa (Plaza of the Pope), located at a high point just outside the municipal area, where one can seize a spectacular view of the entire city. It has this name because while visiting Belo Horizonte, pope John Paul II himself went to this specific plaza and said: "What a beautiful horizon!". Nearby Parque das Mangabeiras (Mangabeiras Park) boasts extensive wildlife, with an area so huge it has its own internal bus service. It's not uncommon for tourists to see monkeys and other animals, and a few people even managed to get lost inside it's woods.

One of the characteristics for which Belo Horizonte is best known in Brazil is its overwhelming proportion of women to men. In the mid 1990's there were more than 175,000 more women than men. Nobody knows the reasons for this, but some say that job opportunities outside the state have attracted men away from Belo Horizonte, while women would rather stay close to their families.

Culture

There are many notable Brazilian artistic groups which have its origins in Belo Horizonte.Grupo Corpo, which is perharps the famoust contemporary dance group in the country, was created in the city in 1975, travel internationally and is acclaimed throughout the world.Giramundo is an important group, specialized in performing puppet shows. They maintain the museum of the puppets they created since their foundation in 1970.

Another innovative artistic group is Uakiti. They create their own musical instruments using materials like PVC, wood, metals and glass. The origin of their name is based in a myth by the Tukano indians, and reflects the indigenous feeling present in their works. Uakti first launched a complete album in 1981, and has released 11 works since that year.

Many important rock groups were founded in Belo Horizonte, being among them J Quest, Pato Fu, Skank, 14 Bis and TianastÃ¡cia. But the band that achieved most international success is certainly the Thrash Metal group Sepultura.

Clube da Esquina is a musical movement originated in mid 60s, and since that moment their members are considered influent in Minas Gerais culture and have important artists such as Tavinho Moura, Wagner Tiso, Milton Nascimento, LÃ´ Borges, Beto Guedes, FlÃ¡vio Venturini, Toninho Horta, MÃ¡rcio Borges, Fernando Brant and 14 Bis, among others.

Belo Horizonte is not different from other major Brazilian cities, as seen here with the contrast between a favela and small villas denoting social inequalty

Anually, the city realizes the FIT BH, The International Theater Festival of Belo Horizonte, which attracts artists from all over Brazil and many parts of the world.