Two great faces
On the façade.
Neilton Domingues — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jonathanbis — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Rafael Lemieszek — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Paulo Andrade — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Rafael Lemieszek — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rafael Lemieszek — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Acaiaca Building is a 30-storey Art Deco skyscraper in central Belo Horizonte, on Avenida Afonso Pena, about 120 metres tall. Luiz Pinto Coelho designed it in 1943 for the businessman Redelvim Andrade; built during World War II, it was given an air-raid shelter in its basement, and it opened in 1947, the year the city celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. The Acaiaca became one of the best-known vertical landmarks of mid-20th-century Belo Horizonte, briefly the tallest building in Brazil and for decades among the tallest in Minas Gerais. It is famous for two monumental Indigenous-themed faces on its façade, part of a Brazilian Art Deco vocabulary that blended Indigenous and Marajoara motifs into modern architecture. Its name comes from an old legend of the Diamantina region about a great cedar called «Acaiaca» that sheltered the couple who repopulated the earth after a flood. The building is seen from Avenida Afonso Pena near Praça Sete and the Municipal Park.
On the façade.
Marajoara motifs.
Downtown heart.
Avenida Afonso Pena 867, central Belo Horizonte
Praça Sete de SetembroPraça Sete de Setembro, «7 September Square», popularly «Praça Sete», is the hea2 minutes walk4.1
Parque Municipal (Belo Horizonte)The Américo Renné Giannetti Municipal Park is Belo Horizonte's oldest park and t6 minutes walk4.6
Praça da EstaçãoPraça Rui Barbosa, known to everyone as «Station Square», was Belo Horizonte's f7 minutes walk4.4
Museu de Artes e OfíciosThe Museum of Arts and Crafts opened on 14 December 2005 as the first Brazilian 7 minutes walk4.9
Mercado Central, Belo HorizonteThe Mercado Central is Belo Horizonte's best-known market, filling a whole block8 minutes walk4.6Two monumental Indigenous-themed faces, in the Brazilian Art Deco style.