Flying saucer
Lit-up tower.
The «Spaceship» of Varginha in southern Minas Gerais is a water tower shaped like a flying saucer and one of the city's best-known landmarks. It stands on Praça Marechal Floriano, now known as the Praça da Nave, the Spaceship Square, beside a small statue of the «ET». The tower was built in 2001 in a shape its designer drew from an incident in 1996, when residents reported seeing a strange creature in the city, in what became known as the Varginha ET case. It stands about twenty metres tall, holds up to a hundred thousand litres and is lit at night. The city declared the case intangible cultural heritage by decree in 2023, a Memorial do ET with a planetarium opened in 2022, and in 2026 Varginha marked thirty years since the incident with an international congress. It makes a fun stop for lovers of the curious and souvenir photos.
Lit-up tower.
Souvenir photo.
Planetarium.
Praça Marechal Floriano (Praça da Nave), Varginha, Minas Gerais
A 1996 incident in which residents reported a strange creature; it is now city heritage.