Belo Horizonte · BR

Praça da Liberdade

Praça da Liberdade is the grand, garden-filled heart of Belo Horizonte's cultural life—a stately rectangular plaza laid out when the planned capital was founded in the 1890s and ringed by the elegant old palaces of Minas Gerais state government. Today those government buildings have become museums, galleries, a public library and cultural centres, making the square both a beloved green escape and the core of the Circuito Liberdade, described by the state as the largest cultural complex in Latin America. A visit rewards two very different pleasures. Outside, you wander tree-shaded lawns framed by tall imperial palms, past a 1923 bandstand, an art-deco fountain and an eclectic skyline where neoclassical, baroque, modernist and post-modern facades stand side by side. Indoors, just steps apart, you can tour a former governor's palace, meet mining science through hands-on installations, watch Brazilian art in a landmark banking centre or read in a library designed by Oscar Niemeyer—most of it free of charge. Open around the clock and wheelchair accessible at its entrance, the plaza is at its most lively on Sunday mornings and at Christmas, when families stroll the gardens; on weekdays the museums are calmer and easier to explore. For anyone drawn to architecture, civic history and Latin American culture, Praça da Liberdade is the single best block to plan a day in Belo Horizonte.