The Palácio da Alvorada () is the

official residence An official residence is the residence of a head of state, head of government, governor, religious leader, leaders of international organizations, or other senior figure. It may be the same place where they conduct their work-related functions. ...

of the

President of Brazil The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...

. It is located in the national capital of

Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...

, on a peninsula at the margins of Paranoá Lake. The building was designed by

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...

and built between 1957 and 1958 in the modernist style. It has been the residence of every Brazilian president since

Juscelino Kubitschek Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...

. The building is listed as a National Historic Heritage Site.Palácio da Alvorada
IPHAN. Retrieved on 2013-03-27. . While it is used as a residence and for reception, the president's official workplace, and center of the executive branch, is the

Palácio do Planalto The Palácio do Planalto () in Brasília is the official workplace of the president of Brazil.Juscelino Kubitschek Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...

: "''Que é Brasília, senão a alvorada de um novo dia para o Brasil?''" ("What is Brasília, if not the dawn of a new day for Brazil?").

History

The Palácio da Alvorada was the first government structure built in the new

federal capital A federal capital is a political entity, often a municipality or capital (political), capital city, that serves as the Seat of government, seat of the federal government. A federal capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the offices ...

. Construction began on April 3, 1957, and was completed on June 30, 1958. Niemeyer's project was based on the principles of simplicity and

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the "Age of Reas ...

2004–2006 restoration

In 2004, First Lady Marisa Letícia directed the most extensive and historical restoration of the palace in its history. The project took two years to complete at a cost of $18.4 million

dollars Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, U ...

. Research was conducted to restore the rooms and

décor Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordin ...

to their original styles. Furniture and decoration objects were also restored. The electric and central air conditioning systems were replaced, and floor and ceiling work was done. Contrary to popular belief, the restoration was not paid by the government, but was part of an ongoing project of restoration of heritage sites under the direction of the

National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage The National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute (, IPHAN) is a heritage register of the federal government of Brazil. It is responsible for the preservation of buildings, monuments, structures, objects and sites, as well as the register and ...

with funds donated by private corporations (for tax-deduction).

Architecture

The

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fu ...

has an area of distributed along three floors: basement, landing and second floor. Located in adjacent buildings within palace grounds are the

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

and the

heliport A heliport is a small airport suitable for use by helicopters and some other vertical lift aircraft. Designated heliports typically contain one or more touchdown and liftoff areas and may also have limited facilities such as fuel or hangars. I ...

. The basement level houses the movie theater, game room, kitchen, laundry, medical center, and the building's administration.

Ground floor

The ground floor houses the state rooms used by the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

for official receptions. It is made up of the Entrance Hall, Waiting Room, State Room, Library, Mezzanine, Dining Room, Noble Room, Music Room and Banquet Room.Palácio do Planalto
Presidency of Brazil. Retrieved on 2013-03-27. Obamas at Palácio do Alvorada in Brasilia

Obamas at Palácio do Alvorada in Brasilia

The Entrance Hall is the main entrance area of the palace. Its main feature is a golden wall inscribed with a phrase by president Kubitschek: "From this central plateau, this vast emptiness that will soon become the center of national decisions, I look once more at the future of my country and foresee this dawn with an unshakeable faith in its great destiny - Juscelino Kubitschek, October 2, 1956". The Waiting Room is decorated with tapestry made by Concessa Colaço entitled ''Manhã de Cores''; two paintings by

Vicente do Rego Monteiro Vicente do Rego Monteiro (December 19, 1899 — June 5, 1970), born in Recife, was a Brazilian painter, sculptor, and poet, born to a rich family. He was part of the Semana de Arte Moderna exhibition and helped form the later Brazilian Moderni ...

– ''Abstração'' and ''Céu''; and a work of art from Carlos Scliar entitled ''Os Barcos Esperam''. The State Room is furnished with a mixture of

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

and antique items. The main wall is made of ''jacarandá-da-baía''. Two sacred images stand out,

Saint Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...

and

Saint Teresa of Ávila In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Orth ...

, both from the 18th century Baroque style. Kennedy Bahia’s

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...

, entitled ''Flora e Fauna da Bahia'' stands out on the wall, as well as paintings made by Djanira da Motta e Silva entitled ''Colhendo Café''; by Maria Leontina, entitled ''Cena II''; and by Alfredo Volpi entitled ''Fachada em Oval''. The Library's book collection includes 3,406 literary works that range from

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

, philosophy,

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

to general

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and Brazilian history, among others. The library is decorated with a tapestry by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti – ''Músicos'' – and three framed old maps:

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

(1645), Brazil (undated) and

Captaincies of Brazil The Captaincies of Brazil ( pt, Capitanias do Brasil) were captaincies of the Portuguese Empire, administrative divisions and hereditary fiefs of Portugal in the colony of ''Terra de Santa Cruz'', later called Brazil, on the Atlantic coast of n ...

(1656). There are also two small oil paintings, ''Moça Sentada ao Piano'' (1857) and ''Senhora Sentada'' (1885), by

Rodolfo Amoedo Rodolfo Amoedo (11 December 1857 – 31 May 1941) was a Brazilian painter, designer and decorator. Biography His interest in art and decoration began when a family friend (who was a lyricist) invited him to do work on the now defunct Teatro Sã ...

. The Mezzanine is a circulation area between the Entrance Hall, the Library and the Noble Room. It features a tapestry by Di Cavalcanti entitled ''Múmias'', three

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

funerary urns from Marajó Island, and two sculptures by Alfredo Ceschiatti. The Dining Room was added in 1992, and is decorated with a table and twelve English chairs in Chippendale style and two other Brazilian tables from the 18th century. Seventeenth-century

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

paintings by Cornelis de Heem and Jan van Huysum stand out in the room. Besides these works of art, the room is also decorated with two Baroque-style angels from the state of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

, and a set of porcelain from the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

dating back to the 18th century. The Noble Room is divided into four sections in which stand out two Victor Brecheret sculptures, entitled ''Morena'' and ''Saindo do Banho''. The contemporary section is decorated with

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

’s furniture. The last two sections display a mixture of antique and contemporary Brazilian and foreign furniture. Two torch holders in golden wood and two sacred pieces are among them – The Holy Family and Sant’Ana Maestra – sitting on an 18th-century table. On the wall, an Aldemir Martins painting entitled ''Vaqueiro'' and two works of art made by

Candido Portinari Candido Portinari (December 29, 1903 – February 6, 1962) was a Brazilian painter. He is considered one of the most important Brazilian painters as well as a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting. Portinari ...

– ''Jangadas do Nordeste'' and ''Os Seringueiros'' stand out. The Music Room is located between the Noble Room and the Banquet Room. It features two upholstered sets of sofas separated by a German parlor

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

. In the back, on a wood dresser stand the statues of

Saint John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given t ...

(17th century), Saint Joachim (18th century). The Banquet Room was designed by Anna Maria Niemeyer, and features a large dining table with fifty seats. In the back of the room there is a 19th-century cedar dresser, next to two chests dated from the beginning of the 20th century. It is decorated by two tapestries entitled ''Saudades do Meu Jardim'', from Concessa Colaço, a sculpture ''Edificação'', by André Bloc, and silverware from the Catete Palace. 16-11-2014 Dragões da Independência (23082103881)

16-11-2014 Dragões da Independência (23082103881)

Second floor

The second floor is the residential part of the palace, with the presidential apartment consisting of four suites, two guest apartments and other private rooms.

Staff and security

There are 160 employees currently working at the Palace, including secretaries, assistants, waiters, cooks, doctors and security personnel. The palace complex is protected by the Presidential Guard Battalion.

References

Presidency of Brazil: Palácio da Alvorada

External links

* Galler

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palacio Da Alvorada Modernist architecture in Brazil Presidential palaces in Brazil Palaces in Brasília Houses completed in 1958 Oscar Niemeyer buildings Tourist attractions in Brasília