Back in the 1820s, the south-east of Brazil was already becoming heavily-populated and a little resented by the rest of the country. Rio de Janeiro was the capital of the country and Sao Paulo was becoming pre-eminent as the industrial and commercial centre.
In an effort to spread the influence around a little, it was suggested that a totally new capital city should be founded away from the south-east, just as Washington DC had been created in the US to take influence away from New York and Boston.
Brazilian bureaucracy being what it is, it took over 60 years for the aspiration to become a commitment, being enshrined in the constitution in 1891, and it wasn’t until 1952 that the construction of Brasilia was finally set underway by President Juscelino Kubitschek, and supervised by Brazil’s most famous Architect, Oscar Niemeyer.
Now they had some wacky ideas back in the 50s, some of which worked out and some of which didn’t. For example, space flight was a good idea; everybody replacing food with super-nutritive toothpaste hasn’t really worked out. And those flying cars are still yet to appear…
Brasilia Travel Booking Resources
These are my favourite companies to use when I travel.
• Search cheap flights with Skyscanner.
• Find the best deals on hotels on Booking.com.
• Find the best sightseeing tours & attraction tickets on GetYourGuide or Viator.
Brasilia Airport
Brasilia airport is located 12 km south of the city. Buses run regularly to the city centre, the journey takes about half an hour and the cost is approximately R$5. A taxi will cost R$50 and takes about 15 minutes to the city centre.
Brasilia Today
Brasilia is probably somewhere between space flight and the flying cars. It was conceived as the perfect future city, where there would be no need for traffic lights, where houses, shops and restaurants were all set out in planned sectors and in perfect proportions, and where the central area looked like a plane from the air!
That last one raised a few eyebrows even back then, but whether it’s a plane, a butterfly, or just a pretty pattern, the fact is that as a city, Brasilia has been quite a success. It’s cleaner, smarter and arguably has fewer social problems than many of Brazil’s large cities, even though its population has swelled to over 4 million in recent years.
As well as being home to the parliament and government ministries, most foreign embassies are also here since the Brazilian government finally ordered them out of Rio in 1973… Interesting though Brasilia is, if you had to choose, you’d go for Rio, wouldn’t you? Most of the Ambassadors obviously thought so too – in fact the Brits held on there until 1983!
While it may not have the beaches, verve or exuberance of Rio, however, Brasilia is well worth a visit as it really is like nowhere else on earth. If you’re at all interested in architecture or even would just like to see how people envisaged the future in the 1950s then it’s worth a stop here in Brasilia between the south and the Amazon or the northern beaches – how many other times do you get to go back to the hotel by plane?