Belo Horizonte, Brazil - getting to know the city

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

The metropolis with the romantic and pleasant name of Belo Horizonte (Beautiful Horizon) is one of the largest cities in the South American state of Brazil. Its area, which accommodates almost 2.5 million inhabitants, is 330.954 square meters. m. This is a multinational city: here you can meet Italians, Portuguese, Germans, Spaniards. It is the administrative center of the state of Minas Gerais, which is located in the southeast of the state.

City construction features

The construction of Belo Horizonte began systematically on a completely undeveloped area. If we compare the cities of Brazil, then the capital of the state of Minas Gerais is the second major center that was built according to the plan. The first was the city of Teresina. How is this method different from the traditional one? As a rule, the terms are quite limited (2-3 years) and both the state and investors, most often large corporations, are involved in the design. Basically they are erected in certainnarrowly targeted purposes.

Belo Horizonte was designed in 1897 and built on the site of a small old settlement. Thanks to the plan, everything in the city was planned in advance. This made it possible to create quadrangular quarters with straight streets and roads. When viewed from a bird's eye view, such orderliness immediately becomes noticeable.

Geographic location and climate

Belo Horizonte lies on the hills of the Atlantic Plateau and is surrounded by mountains. As for the climate, it is unique here. It is in this region that the boundary of the oceanic subtropics and tropics passes. It will be useful for tourists to find out what temperature is kept in the city throughout the calendar year. This information will be very useful for people who plan to spend holidays in these places.

So, the winter here is quite dry and warm. The temperature can even exceed +30 °C (average in January is +28 °C). The summer season is also quite hot, but it rains more. The air temperature can drop to +18 °С. By the way, if you take into account the reviews about Belo Horizonte, then the heat is not acutely felt here, there is absolutely no stuffiness that can often be encountered on the territory of Russia. Many tourists claim that the conditions here are quite comfortable for a person.

Economy

Services are the main area for the city's economy. It is thanks to them that 80% of the local budget is filled. Mechanical engineering, biotechnology, business tourism, fashion, ferrous metallurgy, chemical industry and pharmacology are well developed, as well asfurniture manufacturing. However, many cities in Brazil are developing thanks to these areas.

Not the last place is occupied by information technology. For example, the headquarters of the Brazilian representative office of Google is located here, and not in the capital of the state, as one might assume.

Transportation

There are fixed-route taxis and buses in the city, there is a surface metro line. Domestic flights are accepted by the local airport. For international flights, another one was built 30 km from the city. This is the most beautiful and equipped airport in South America.

Culture

In Belo Horizonte (Brazil) is the famous concert complex "Palacio das Artes" (Palacio Das Artes), which includes a cinema hall, theaters, a library, art galleries and a center for cultural studies. Popular shows, concerts of contemporary performers of various genres, presentations, ballet and opera performances, conferences, seminars are held in the halls of the palace. Several popular Brazilian pop and rock bands were founded in the city and are now successfully performing even outside the country.

Attractions

The metropolis is relatively young, so there are not so many sights that keep history. Tourists are fascinated by nature reserves and parks that amaze with their diversity and beauty. The most famous and wonderful are the Mangabeiras Park, the Botanical Garden and the Zoo.

In the first there are naturalplants and animals for the area. Even in this heavenly place you can meet high anthills and wonderful exotic birds. Every week on Sundays there are open-air performances. Public transport runs to the park from Belo Horizonte, so this is a favorite place for both local "natives" and tourists. The latter are happy to arrange picnics, outdoor games and other various entertainments here.

Zoo has become another popular place to relax from city life. Nowadays, it is part of a huge botanical reserve and attracts a huge number of visitors with its originality. This picturesque place is also suitable for playing golf. The Japanese garden, remarkable for its sophistication, is also located on the territory of the zoo. Here you can observe representatives of various classes and species of animals: birds, reptiles and mammals. At the moment, it has more than 250 exhibits. This is not only a home for birds and animals and just a great place, but also the "green lungs" of the city of Belo Horizonte.

Besides, not very far from the metropolis there are several mysterious grottoes with petroglyphs, crystal formations and interesting prehistoric paintings. In the southwest is the man-made lagoon of Pampulha, which, in turn, is surrounded by the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, the campus of the Federal University and the Mineirao Stadium. The Palace of Liberty, the museums of the history of Abilio Bareto and Mineralogy may also be of interest to guests of the city.

Extraordinary quirky architecture, unique originalculture, variety of natural and man-made attractions make Belo Horizonte very desirable and attractive for tourists.