Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte, Brazil

The curved white vaults of the Pampulha church glow in low sunset light above the still lake, seen from the reedy shore.

Belo Horizonte is a planned capital ringed by mountains, where Niemeyer's modernist Pampulha, hill viewpoints and Minas Gerais cooking fit into a few easy days.

The place

Belo Horizonte is the capital of Minas Gerais, a state in south-eastern Brazil, and home to about 2.4 million people, with a far larger metropolitan area spreading around it. The city stands about 760 m above sea level in a bowl of hills, and the ridge of the Serra do Curral forms its southern skyline. Streets climb and drop constantly, so a walk that looks short on the map often turns into a workout. The centre was drawn on paper before it was built: a grid of broad avenues cut by diagonals, with Washington, D.C. as one of the planners' models. Avenida Afonso Pena runs through downtown as its main spine, while the hillier neighbourhoods have grown in a looser, more improvised way. Old and new sit side by side here: older civic buildings around Praça da Liberdade, modernist architecture in the Pampulha district, and glass towers along the ridges. Parks lie around the edges, where cerrado scrub meets remnants of Atlantic forest. The city has also drawn international recognition for urban renewal and for programmes that tackle hunger. Day to day it feels like a working regional capital rather than a resort: office crowds at lunchtime, football at weekends, and bar tables filling the pavements in the evening. Many travellers treat it as a base for the colonial towns elsewhere in the state, but it repays a few days of its own.

Its story

Belo Horizonte began as a cattle farm. In 1701 João Leite da Silva Ortiz, a bandeirante explorer from São Paulo, arrived during the gold-rush years and set up a holding called Curral d'el Rey, an old form of 'the king's corral'. The farm prospered, and a village of smallholdings gathered around it. Its position helped: people travelling from the São Francisco river valley towards southern Brazil had to pass through, and many stopped at a small wooden chapel to ask for a safe journey. It came to be known as Our Lady of the Good Journey. When the modern city arrived, a larger Gothic-revival building replaced the chapel and took on the role of cathedral.

The reason for a new city lay in Ouro Preto, the earlier state capital. Its name means 'black gold', after the dark, gold-bearing rock of the area, and it stood for the mining wealth of the colonial and imperial age. Once the empire had ended, Minas Gerais wanted a capital that looked forward rather than back. Engineers led by Aarão Reis and Francisco Bicalho laid out Belo Horizonte on the site of the old village, with ordered streets and room for parks. The name means 'beautiful horizon', which suits the ring of mountains. It is described as Brazil's first planned modern city, and it has long since grown well beyond the plan.

What to see

Culture

Belo Horizonte's cultural life revolves around music, bars and football. The city is the home of Clube da Esquina ('Corner Club'), a musical movement whose members, among them Milton Nascimento and Toninho Horta, became influential well beyond Brazil. The band Uakti, which plays instruments it builds itself, also began here, and the city has produced several well-known rock groups, including Skank, Pato Fu and Jota Quest. People from Minas Gerais are called mineiros, and they are often described as unhurried, hospitable and dryly funny; a conversation across a counter can easily end in an invitation to eat. The social centre of the city is the boteco, a neighbourhood bar with small plates, cold beer and a television showing the match. Football loyalties split between two local clubs, Atlético and Cruzeiro, and the rivalry is a fair guide to the mood on any weekend. Catholic tradition runs deep across the state, and church festivals mark the calendar, even though the city itself is mixed and largely relaxed. Live music turns up in bars across the centre and in the more affluent southern districts, often without any cover charge, though it pays to ask at the door. Greet people with a 'bom dia' or 'boa tarde' before asking for anything, and ask before photographing someone at close range, especially at a bar table or a football crowd.

What to wear

Belo Horizonte has no single traditional costume of its own, as Brazil's regional dress is mostly tied to festivals and rural life. The best-known example is festa junina, the June celebrations, when people wear checked cotton shirts, straw hats and patchwork dresses of printed cotton called chita. Minas Gerais also has a long craft tradition in hand-woven cotton and crochet, and these textiles appear in shawls, table linen and scarves at craft fairs. In daily life, people dress casually and neatly: jeans or light trousers, cotton shirts, trainers or sandals, and linen or office wear in the business districts. Football shirts of Atlético and Cruzeiro are everywhere on match days, and it is wise not to wear a club's colours in the other side's crowd. Evenings in the drier months can turn cool, so locals carry a light jacket. Visitors should pack breathable cotton, a sun hat and sunscreen, plus a thin waterproof for the wetter months. Shoes matter most: the pavements are steep and sometimes uneven, so comfortable closed footwear beats flip-flops for city walks and park trails. For churches, cover shoulders and avoid very short shorts. Nothing beyond that is expected; Belo Horizonte is relaxed about what visitors wear.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. May to September is the drier, cooler stretch, with clear skies for the viewpoints and parks. October to March is warmer and wetter, with heavy afternoon downpours that can interrupt outdoor plans.

How long. 2–3

Getting there. Most flights use the main airport at Confins, north of the city, with a smaller airport at Pampulha; from either, take a taxi, ride-hailing car or airport bus into the centre. Belo Horizonte is also a major bus hub, with long-distance coaches from Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília, and a daily train to the Vitória area.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources