Belo Horizonte was drawn on a grid in 1897 and then spent a century breaking it — Niemeyer's Pampulha curves, Portinari's tiles, Burle Marx's gardens. Beyond the postcards sit free art museums in belle-époque mansions, a fierce theatre scene and Latin America's biggest open-air art park.
Niemeyer's 1943 casino, all ramps, marble and a mirrored dance floor, converted to a contemporary art museum in 1957. Rotating shows plus the Burle Marx garden behind. Tue–Sun 09:00–17:00, closed Mondays.
The little curved dance pavilion on its own lake islet, 1943, with a marquee that echoes the shoreline. Now a free exhibition space on architecture and urbanism, with a café on the terrace facing the water.
Four parabolic concrete vaults, a Portinari mural of St Francis in blue-and-white azulejos across the whole rear wall, and Ceschiatti bronzes. Refused consecration until 1959 for being too modern. Tue–Sat 09:00–17:00.
Rodrigo Lefèvre and Hélio Ferreira Pinto's 1971 modernist slab in the Parque Municipal, holding three galleries, the Centro de Artesanato Mineiro craft shop and the city's main concert hall. Galleries Tue–Sat 09:30–21:00.
Brazil's finest palaeontology collection: the Luzia skull replica, giant ground sloths and a hall of Minas dinosaur fossils, in a former quarry site. Tue–Fri 09:00–17:00, weekends 10:00–16:00.
A 1897 secretariat palace turned immersive museum of mineiro identity: Guimarães Rosa's study reconstructed, a room of tolling church bells, Milton Nascimento audio. Free, Tue–Sat 10:00–17:30.
UFMG's cube on the Praça da Liberdade with a full-dome planetarium, an anthropology floor on Minas peoples and a rooftop terrace over the palm-lined square. Planetarium sessions hourly, Tue–Fri 10:00–17:00.
BH's 1950 open-air-feel theatre inside the park, home to Grupo Galpão-adjacent companies and cheap municipal seasons. Check the Fundação Municipal de Cultura listings for the night's play, dance or chamber concert.
Bernardo Paz's 140-hectare botanical park with 23 permanent pavilions — Cildo Meireles, Hélio Oiticica, Doug Aitken's Sonic Pavilion drilled 200m into bedrock. 60 km southwest; buses leave Terminal JK around 08:15.
The retaining walls under and along Rua Sapucaí carry BH's densest concentration of legal graffiti, repainted constantly by crews from the CURA vertical-mural festival, with the skyline behind the rail cut.
The bohemian hillside neighbourhood that produced Clube da Esquina — low houses, record shops on Rua Mármore, and the Clubinho bar where the music scene still gathers on weekday afternoons.
The neighbourhood's square, ringed by botecos, where informal samba and Clube da Esquina-style roda de choro sessions start at dusk and spill onto the pavement. Free, and the best live music in the city.