Designed by Oscar Niemeyer; completed 1943 In 1941 the mayor of Belo Horizonte, Juscelino Kubitschek, commissioned the architect Oscar Niemeyer to build a series of buildings around Pampulha lake. These included a yacht club, a dance hall, a casino, and a chapel, the latter of which is known as the Church of St. Francis of Assisi (1943). Under Kubitschek’s influence Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, aspired to compete with the two hitherto hegemonic metropolises, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In 1938 the governor suggested the need for a tourist hotel in the colonial city of Ouro Preto, a project that would be also carried out by Niemeyer (1939). Kubitschek’s desire to introduce modern elements in a city that still remained provincial and traditional motivated the urbanization of the lands edging the artificial lake in Pampulha, situated fifteen kilometers from the city center, and created for the recreation of Minas Gerais’s new industrial bourgeoi...