Belo Horizonte (Portuguese: "Beautiful Horizon" — population 2.5 million city, 6.0 million metropolitan area: the third-largest metropolitan area in Brazil after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) is the capital of Minas Gerais state and the most culinarily, architecturally and culturally distinct major city in Brazil: the planned capital built from scratch in 1897 (the first purpose-built planned city in South America, predating Brasília by 63 years), designed in the Haussmann-inspired radial grid plan by the engineer Aarão Reis on the plateau of the Serra do Espinhaço mountain range at 858m altitude, with the most extraordinary concentration of Oscar Niemeyer modernist architecture in Brazil outside Brasília (the Pampulha Architectural Complex — the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the revolutionary church, casino, yacht club and ballroom that Niemeyer designed on the shores of the Pampulha lake for the future president Juscelino Kubitschek in 1940–1943), the most important food market in Brazil (the Mercado Central — the most vibrant and most authentic covered market in South America), and the most distinctive cuisine in Brazil: the "comida mineira" (Minas Gerais food: the most beloved and most complex regional cuisine in Brazil — the feijão tropeiro (the bean-and-manioc-flour-and-crackling dish of the 18th-century cattle drovers), the tutu de feijão, the frango com quiabo (the Afro-Brazilian okra chicken stew), the linguiça (the smoked pork sausage), the torresmo (the fried pork crackling), and the pão de queijo (the cheese bread — the most widely exported Brazilian food in the world, eaten at breakfast in every corner of Brazil).
Pampulha Architectural Complex (UNESCO World Heritage 2016 — the most important modernist architectural ensemble in Brazil outside Brasília): the four buildings designed by the 32-year-old Oscar Niemeyer for the mayor and future president Juscelino Kubitschek between 1940 and 1943 on the shores of the artificial Pampulha Lake: the Igreja de São Francisco de Assis (the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi — the most beautiful building Oscar Niemeyer ever designed and the single most important building in Brazilian architectural history: the sinusoidal concrete shell roof (the wave-form that would become the defining vocabulary of Brazilian modernism), the azulejo tile panels by the painter Cândido Portinari (the most important Brazilian painter of the 20th century) depicting scenes from the life of Saint Francis: the Church was refused consecration by the Archbishop of Belo Horizonte (Dom Antônio dos Santos Cabral) for 16 years (1943–1959) because of its revolutionary non-traditional form — the Church was finally consecrated in 1959 only after intense political pressure), the Casa do Baile (the dance hall / ballroom on the artificial peninsula of the Pampulha lake — the most elegantly sited of the four Pampulha buildings: the circular restaurant connected to the sinusoidal music kiosk on the lake shore), the Cassino (the casino — now the Museu de Arte da Pampulha (MAP) — the former gambling hall with the Portinari murals and the most important collection of Brazilian modern art in Minas Gerais), and the Iate Clube (the yacht club — the most restrained and the most quietly elegant of the four Pampulha buildings: the floating restaurant terrace on the lake).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMercado Central (the most important covered market in Brazil — the 420-stall market in the center of Belo Horizonte: the single most important expression of the comida mineira (Minas Gerais cuisine) food culture in any one space in Brazil): the cachaça wall (the most famous feature of the Mercado Central: the wall of over 800 different cachaça bottles — the largest single display of Brazilian cachaça (the sugarcane spirit that is the national spirit of Brazil: more important to Brazilian culture than whiskey to Scotland or tequila to Mexico) in the world: the cachaça varieties range from the industrial (the Piratini, the 51, the Velho Barreiro — the most widely sold mass-market cachaças) to the ultra-artisanal (the small-batch pot-still artisan cachaças from individual Minas Gerais farm stills — the most sought-after spirits in Brazil: the cachaça culture of Minas Gerais is the most developed and most connoisseur-oriented in Brazil)), the pão de queijo (the cheese bread — the most important Minas Gerais food: the small round rolls made from sour tapioca starch (the polvilho azedo) mixed with Minas Gerais cheese (the queijo minas — the most important cheese in Brazil: the fresh white cheese produced throughout Minas Gerais state) and egg and oil: the rolls are baked until puffed and golden on the outside and melting and stringy on the inside: the most widely exported Brazilian food in the world), and the comida mineira buffet (the per-kilo buffet restaurants of the Mercado Central that are the most authentic expression of the Minas Gerais culinary tradition: the feijão tropeiro, the tutu de feijão, the frango com quiabo and the torresmo).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSavassi petiscos bar crawl (the most important neighborhood in Belo Horizonte for the bar culture — the Savassi district (named for the Italian entrepreneur Salvatore Vassi who operated the first pharmacy in the neighborhood in the early 20th century) is the most concentrated restaurant and bar district in Belo Horizonte: the "petiscos" (the Portuguese word for "tapas" or bar snacks — the Minas Gerais petisco culture is the most developed bar food culture in Brazil: the most important petiscos of the Minas Gerais tradition are the torresmo (the deep-fried pork belly crackling — the most widely ordered petisco in any BH bar: the torresmo is the Minas Gerais equivalent of the Spanish croqueta — always present, always ordered, the essential accompaniment to the cold draft beer), the coxinha (the teardrop-shaped chicken croquette — the most beloved deep-fried snack in all of Brazil: the dough made from wheat flour and mashed potato, stuffed with the shredded chicken and cream cheese, then breaded and deep-fried), and the linguiça de Minas (the Minas Gerais smoked pork sausage — the most important cured meat product of the Minas Gerais food tradition: the sausages are made from pork shoulder and fat, seasoned with the mineiro spice blend (garlic + salt + black pepper + paprika) and cold-smoked over sugar cane bagasse for 24–48 hours).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideComida mineira dinner (the most beloved and most celebrated regional cuisine in Brazil — the "comida da roça" (the farm food) of the Minas Gerais interior): feijão tropeiro (the most important Minas Gerais dish: the black beans mixed with the manioc flour (the farofa — the toasted manioc flour that is the essential starchy accompaniment in Brazilian food culture), the torresmo (the fried pork crackling), the kale (the couve — the most important leaf vegetable of the Minas tradition) and the fried egg: the dish of the 18th-century "tropeiros" (the cattle drovers who moved the cattle herds from Minas Gerais to the São Paulo coast along the "Estrada Real" (the Royal Road): the tropeiro made feijão tropeiro over the fire at the cattle camp with the preserved ingredients they could carry in the saddlebags)), tutu de feijão (the refried bean puree with the smoked bacon and the boiled egg — the most comforting and most universally loved Minas Gerais dish), frango com quiabo (the Afro-Brazilian okra chicken stew: the recipe brought by the enslaved West African population of Minas Gerais in the 18th century — the okra (quiabo) is the most important West African vegetable in Brazilian cuisine (the Igbo word "okwuru" became "quiabo" in Brazilian Portuguese): the okra releases a characteristic viscous substance (the mucilage) during cooking that thickens the stew and gives it the most distinctive texture of any Brazilian dish).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideInhotim (the Instituto Inhotim — the most important cultural institution in Brazil and the world's largest outdoor contemporary art museum): the 140-hectare botanical garden and contemporary art museum 60km west of Belo Horizonte (the town of Brumadinho): the brainchild of the Brazilian mining magnate Bernardo Paz (who began collecting contemporary art in the 1980s and developing the Inhotim site in 1984 — converting the former cattle farm and later the private mango plantation of the British engineer Mr. Tim (the "In-hotim" is a contraction of "Inhá-hotel-do-Tim" (the "hotel of Tim") in the local pronunciation of "Hotel do Inglês Tim" (the Hotel of the Englishman Tim): the plantation was known locally as "the farm of Tim" and the name stuck to the entire development): 23 permanent gallery pavilions (each designed by a different architect for a specific artist's work — the most carefully curated permanent collection presentation in the world): the most important works: Hélio Oiticica's "Éden" (the most important work by the most important Brazilian artist of the 20th century: the 1969 installation recreating the artist's favela studio as a meditative space), Chris Burden's "Beam Drop" (the 71 steel I-beams dropped from a crane into wet concrete — the most physically dramatic outdoor sculpture at Inhotim), and the Cosmococa program (the multi-screen slide and sound installation environments created by Oiticica and the filmmaker Neville d'Almeida in 1973 — the most important multimedia installation in Brazilian art history).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideInhotim botanical gardens: the integration of tropical botanical garden and contemporary art installation is the defining characteristic of Inhotim and makes it unique among art museums worldwide. The botanical collection: 5,000+ tropical plant species across the 140-hectare site. The key botanical features: the bamboo forest (the largest bamboo grove in Brazil — the bamboo species from across Asia, Africa and the Americas growing in a dense grove that visitors walk through on wooden boardwalks: the visual and acoustic experience of the bamboo grove (the sound of bamboo in the wind) is one of the most distinctive sensory experiences at Inhotim), the lotus lake (the artificial lake covered in the giant Victoria amazonica (the giant water lily of the Amazon basin — the leaves reach 2m in diameter and can support the weight of a child)), and the tree-fern grove (the grove of Cyathea species — the tree ferns that are the living fossils of the Carboniferous period (350 million years ago)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideLourdes neighborhood dinner (the most upscale restaurant district in Belo Horizonte — between Savassi and the Praça da Liberdade): the refined comida mineira at table service restaurants (the most sophisticated expression of the Minas Gerais culinary tradition): the caipirinha mineira (the Brazilian national cocktail made with artisan Minas Gerais cachaça — the most important element of the caipirinha is the quality of the cachaça: the artisan pot-still cachaças of Minas Gerais (the most important cachaça-producing state in Brazil) have the most complex and refined flavor of any Brazilian spirit: the "caipirinha" (the word derives from the Portuguese "caipira" (the country person, the rural inhabitant): the most widely drunk cocktail in Brazil: the recipe: the white sugar muddled with the lime quarters, the artisan cachaça poured over ice, shaken and served in a rocks glass)), and the doce de leite (the caramelized milk spread — the most important sweet product of the Minas Gerais dairy tradition: the most widely consumed sweet condiment in Brazil (eaten on bread, as a dessert on its own, in the "romeu e julieta" (the doce de leite + queijo minas combination that is the most beloved dessert in Minas Gerais))).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBelo Horizonte nightlife: the most underrated live music scene in Brazil. The BH music legacy: Sepultura (the most internationally successful Brazilian heavy metal band — formed in BH in 1984 by the Cavalera brothers: the band that exported Brazilian metal to the world with the landmark albums "Arise" (1991) and "Chaos A.D." (1993)), Skank (the most popular Brazilian ska-rock band — formed in BH in 1991: the most commercially successful band in the history of Minas Gerais music), and Pato Fu (the BH indie rock band: the most critically acclaimed Brazilian indie band of the 1990s). The Lagoinha pagode bars (the most authentic Brazilian pagode scene outside Rio de Janeiro: the Lagoinha neighborhood (the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood in BH) pagode bars where the samba-derivative genre with the cavaquinho, the tamborim, the repique de mão and the pandeiro is played live every weekend night).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSerra do Cipó National Park (the 33,000-hectare national park in the Espinhaço mountain range 100km north of Belo Horizonte): the most accessible and most visited national park in Minas Gerais: the cerrado (the Brazilian tropical savanna — the "hotspot of hotspots": the second most biodiverse biome on Earth (after the Amazon rainforest) and the most biodiverse tropical savanna in the world: the cerrado covers 22% of Brazil's territory and contains 11,627 plant species (of which 4,400 are endemic — found nowhere else on Earth) and 935 bird species): the waterfalls of the Serra do Cipó (the most important tourist attraction in the park — the waterfalls formed by the streams of the Espinhaço mountain range cascading over the exposed quartzite and itabirite rock formations: the most visited waterfalls are the Cachoeira da Farofa (the "waterfall of manioc flour" — named for the manioc flour (the farofa) that the 19th-century travelers used to carry on the trail through the park), the Cachoeira Véu da Noiva (the "bridal veil waterfall"), and the Cachoeira Roncadeira (the "snoring waterfall" — named for the thunderous sound of the water falling over the quartzite escarpment): the rock formations (the Serra do Cipó is one of the most important geological sites in Brazil: the exposed Proterozoic quartzite and itabirite (iron ore) formations of the Espinhaço Supergroup — the most ancient exposed rock in Brazil (1.75 billion years old)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideConceição do Mato Dentro (the 18th-century colonial village in the Serra do Cipó region — 30km northeast of the Serra do Cipó National Park): the most charming and most authentic colonial village in the Espinhaço mountain range: the Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Conceição (the most important church in the region — the 18th-century Baroque church with the most ornate gilded interior in the Serra do Cipó area: the gold leaf altar and the painted ceiling are the most important examples of the Minas Gerais Baroque in the northern part of the state): the queijo minas artesanal (the artisan Minas Gerais cheese — the most important artisan cheese in Brazil: the fresh, white, slightly salted cheese made from raw milk of the mixed breed dairy cattle of the Minas Gerais interior: the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (2008): the most important cultural and culinary symbol of the state of Minas Gerais): the Tabuleiro waterfall (the most spectacular waterfall in the Serra do Cipó region — the 273m single-drop waterfall that is the third-highest waterfall in Brazil: the most dramatic natural feature in the northern Serra do Cipó).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePraça da Liberdade Cultural Circuit (the most important cultural complex in Belo Horizonte — the "Circuito Liberdade": the five museums and cultural institutions surrounding the Praça da Liberdade (the most important public square in Belo Horizonte: the 1.6-hectare garden designed by Paul Villon and flanked by the most important Belle Époque and early modernist public buildings in the state)): the Memorial Minas Gerais Vale (the most innovative and most technologically sophisticated museum in Brazil: the underground museum beneath the Praça da Liberdade dedicated to the history, culture and natural diversity of the state of Minas Gerais: the most impressive museum installation design in Brazil), the Palácio da Liberdade (the former governor's palace of Minas Gerais state — the 1898 Eclectic building by the engineer Luís Bagueira Leal: the most important historic building in Belo Horizonte), the Museu Mineiro (the history of Minas Gerais art and culture from the colonial Baroque period to the 20th century: the most important collection of Minas Gerais Baroque sculpture and sacred art outside the churches of Ouro Preto) and the Museu das Minas e do Metal (the museum of the mining industry — the most important industry in the history of Minas Gerais (the state name literally translates as "General Mines" (the "Minas" of the "Minas Gerais" refers to the gold and diamond mines of the 18th century)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideFarewell dinner in Belo Horizonte: the pão de queijo (the most important Minas Gerais food and the most important Brazilian food export in the world — the small round rolls made from polvilho azedo (sour tapioca starch) + queijo minas (fresh white Minas cheese) + egg + oil: the rolls puff up during baking to a golden exterior with a melting, stringy, cheese-flavored interior: the defining food of Minas Gerais and the food most associated with Brazil by Brazilians) in the full variety tasting. The doce de leite (the caramelized milk spread — made by the slow reduction of full-fat milk with sugar until it caramelizes to a thick, deep amber paste: the most important sweet product of the Minas Gerais dairy tradition: produced in the most important quantities in the Mantiqueira mountain range of southern Minas Gerais (the "doce de leite country" — the area around São João del-Rei, Tiradentes and Prados is the most important doce de leite producing area in the world)). Artisan cachaça nightcap: the most important Minas Gerais spirit, neat or in a final caipirinha.
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