Brazil

Cathedral of Brasília

The Cathedral of Brasília is the Roman Catholic cathedral serving Brasília, Brazil, and serves as the seat of the Archdiocese of Brasília. It was designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and projected by Brazilian structural engineer Joaquim Cardozo, and was completed and dedicated on May 31, 1970. The cathedral is a hyperbolic structure built from concrete. It measures 40 m in height and is capable of holding up to 4,000 people. The base is circular and measures around 60 m in diameter. The structure, with its glass ceiling, is supported by 16 curved steel columns which weigh 90 tonnes each. The large stained glass windows are shaped into triangles that fit together between the columns. The windows measure 30 m high and 10 m across at the base. The cathedral’s bell tower houses four bells that were donated by Spain. Inside the nave, three sculptures of angels are suspended by steel cables. These range in size from 2.22-4.25 m in length and weigh 100-300 kg each.

Christ the Redeemer

Christ the Redeemer is an Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, created by French sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with French engineer Albert Caquot. Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida fashioned the face. Constructed between 1922 and 1931, the statue is 30 metres high, excluding its 8-metre pedestal. The arms stretch 28 metres wide. The statue weighs 635 metric tons, and is located at the peak of the 700-metre Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro. A symbol of Christianity across the world, the statue has also become a cultural icon of both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, and is listed as one of the New7Wonders of the World. It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone.

Niterói Contemporary Art Museum

Created from a revolutionary figure of double curvature, the Museum stands on the cliff as a symbolic lighthouse built overlooking the bay. The combination of the elements that surround it, an open square of 2500 square meters, a reflecting pool at its base with 817 square meters and 60 meters deep, thereby giving the structure an appearance of lightness. The modernist structure with circular lines and saucer-shaped, has sometimes been likened to a UFO. The structure rests on a water source from which emerge the flying saucer appears white, pretending to be suspended in the air. It is located at the top of Mirante da Boa Viagem (Boa Viagem viewpoint) on Avenida Almirante Benjamin Sodré of the city of Niteroi, enjoying a splendid view of Sugar Loaf and Corcovado, as the city of Niteroi is opposite Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, accessed via an impressive bridge or ferry.

The Amazon Theatre

Built in the late nineteenth century, both Teatro Amazonas (Amazon Theater) and Teatro da Paz (Peace Theater) are located in the Brazilian Amazon in the cities of Manaus and Belém, respectively. These theaters are significant monuments located in the two largest urban centers of the region, symbols of the economic boom achieved and represented by a model of Europeanized civility reproduced in the tropics due to the Amazon Rubber Boom in South America. This modernity, fostered by rubber exports - a period in which the cities of Belém and Manaus monopolized the supply of latex for the manufacture of various products in the context of the Industrial Revolution underway in Europe, was made possible by the wealth generated by intercontinental trade resulting in sponsoring the arrival of architects, engineers and European artists, who promoted profound changes in the urban landscape of these cities. The construction of these two monumental opera houses, in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon forest, symbolizes the deployment process in the tropics of the ideals of progress and civilization existent in the nineteenth century, when the ships that crossed the Atlantic Ocean, overflowing with latex, returned with people, products and ideas of the European Belle Époque.