Brasília

The Esplanada dos Ministérios stretches toward the twin towers of the Congresso Nacional, its concrete and glass geometry shimmering in the cerrado heat. Niemeyer's Cathedral — a crown of curved concrete ribs meeting in a point — glows from within as afternoon light floods its stained-glass interior. The sky above is vast and cerrado-blue, unbroken by anything except the monumental scale of a city designed from scratch.

Brasília is the planned capital of Brazil, inaugurated in 1960 after being designed by urbanist Lúcio Costa and architect Oscar Niemeyer in a concentrated burst of mid-century modernist ambition. The Plano Piloto — the city's central axis, shaped like an aeroplane from above — is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest collection of Modernist architecture on Earth. Key buildings include the Palácio da Alvorada (presidential residence), the Itamaraty Palace (foreign ministry) with its floating arches reflected in a shallow pool, and the Panteão da Pátria. Beyond the monumental axis, Brasília has developed a distinct cultural identity shaped by the migrants who built it — northeasterners, mineiros, goianos — whose cuisines converge in the Setor Comercial Sul's por-quilo restaurants. The surrounding cerrado offers hiking and waterfalls at the Chapada da Contagem, rarely visited by tourists who never venture beyond the Plano Piloto.