Brazil has dense rainforests with exotic plants and wildlife, thousands of beaches with golden sand, stunning mountain ranges with snow-capped peaks, cascading waterfalls with crystal clear water, and white sand dunes near wonderful lakes. It is also well-known for its modern metropolises like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo or Brasilia.
Every year lots of tourists come to Brazil to enjoy local food or learn about Brazilian culture and art. The country is also famous for impressive street carnivals and its love of football. The world-known architecture should be seen by every visitor.
Depending on where you come from, you might need to apply for a Brazilian visa to visit the country. If you decide on going to Brazil, you must make time to see the most popular landmarks in the country. Here are some of the most popular landmarks in Brazil.
Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro
It is the colossal statue of Christ (Cristo Redentor) in art deco style. The 30-meter tall concrete and soapstone statue was designed in 1931 by Polish French sculptor Paul Landowski and Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa. Christ the Redeemer is one of the most important historical monuments in the country. It is located in the Tijuca National Park in Rio de Janeiro, the former capital city. The park houses several species of tropical birds, butterflies, and a variety of plants. The base of the statue has a chapel that is used for weddings.
Iguacu Falls
The beautiful set of waterfalls is located at the meeting point of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. It is the largest waterfall system in the world that consists of 275 separate falls. Some of the waterfalls are more than 100 meters high, so to see all of them at once you need to go up to the observation deck. By the way, the broadest panorama is exactly from the Brazilian side. The falls is a part of the National park that home to more than a thousand of species of birds and mammals. Iguaçu Falls is listed the UNESCO’s World Heritage Site.
Salvador’s Pelourinho
This old part of Salvador is often called “a city within a city”. Pelourinho is world-famous for its 17th- and 18th-century colonial constructions built at a time when Brazil was a Portuguese colony. It was a slave auction location in those days.
You will also find a lot of beautiful churches and monasteries in this area. The most wonderful and opulent is the Church of São Francisco that was constructed in the early 1700s. Pelourinho is also worth visiting for its cobbled streets, restaurants, cafes, shops and nightlife. It is included in Brazil’s UNESCO’s World Heritage List these days.
Copacabana Beach
It is one of the world’s famous beaches. This four-kilometer stretch of white sand is visited by millions of tourists every year. The Copacabana Beach is a vacation hot spot in Brazil that is very popular because of its excellent surfing. The beach is separated from other constructions by a wide boardwalk paved in black and white mosaic. This walkway was designed in the 1930s by Roberto Burle Marx, a Brazilian landscape architect. Near the Copacabana beach there are more than 60 hotels as well as lots of restaurants, cafés, shops, and unusual old buildings.
Amazon Rainforests
Rainforest in Brazil is one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet. It is a paradise for visitors who want to experience the jungle. Amazon Rainforest is home to almost a tenth of the world’s plant and animal species. You can see jaguars, ocelots, monkeys, sloths, caimans, capybaras, parrots, butterflies, turtles, river dolphins, and other wildlife there. Close to Manaus there is a 688-hectare Janauari Ecological Park. You should also visit the well-known Teatro Amazonas and the Italian Renaissance-style opera house.
Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum, Rio de Janeiro
It is one of the most popular landmarks in Brazil. The museum was designed in 1996 by a famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. It looks like a massive flying saucer. You can admire a gorgeous view of the city and the bay of Rio de Janeiro that is available from the Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum. In the partially sunken basement there is a café, a restaurant and a small 54-seat hall. The main museum’s collection has more than a thousand of pieces created by Brazilian artists from the1950s to the early-1990s.
The Cathedral of Brasilia
This landmark is located in the heart of Brasilia, the new capital city of Brazil. Its full name is Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of Aparecida. Built in 1970, it is one of the best works by Brazilian greatest architect, Oscar Niemeyer. The cathedral consists of 16 white concrete columns that are bent inward and look like hands reaching up toward heaven. A glass ceiling and a few hanging sculptures of angels are housed inside the construction. Today it is also a functioning place of Roman Catholic worship. More than one million tourists visit the Cathedral of Brasilia every year.