For centuries Brazil’s people and wealth clung to the Atlantic coast, first in Salvador and from 1763 in Rio de Janeiro. In 1827 José Bonifácio, an advisor to Emperor Pedro I, proposed moving the capital inland and suggested the name Brasília. In 1883 the Italian saint Don Bosco dreamed of a promised land between the 15th and 20th parallels beside a man-made lake. The 1891 Constitution mandated the move, and Belgian astronomer Louis Cruls surveyed the Cruls Quadrilateral in the 1890s. Nothing happened until President Juscelino Kubitschek, promising 50 years of progress in five, built the city in 41 months and inaugurated it on April 21, 1960, flying in materials before roads existed and relying on migrant workers called candangos.

Lúcio Costa won the 1957 master plan competition, which drew over 5,000 entrants, with little more than sketches and a report. His cross-shaped plan curved into the famous airplane outline, though Costa denied it was meant to be a plane. Superquadras were meant to mix classes and prevent favelas, and roads were designed with no traffic lights. Reality intervened: the core stayed near its planned 500,000 people while satellite cities pushed the metro area past 3.5 million, traffic lights arrived on the Monumental Axis, and the wealthy center earned the nickname Fantasy Island.

• Oscar Niemeyer and engineer Joaquim Cardozo designed the cathedral as a hyperboloid of 16 concrete columns weighing 90 tons each
• The Palácio da Alvorada appears to hover just above the ground on slender curved columns
• Lake Paranoá was dammed to raise humidity during a dry season when levels drop below 30 percent
• Vila Amaury, the village where the first candangos lived, now lies underwater and draws scuba divers
• Brasília became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 and the birthplace of Brazilian rock bands like Legião Urbana