Praça da Liberdade Cultural Circuit Guide: Palaces, CCBB & Edifício Niemeyer

Laid out between 1895 and 1897 at the highest point inside the Avenida do Contorno ring, Praça da Liberdade was designed by Aarão Reis as the civic acropolis of Minas Gerais. For more than a century, the French-inspired gardens and double avenue of royal palms were flanked by the Palácio da Liberdade (seat of the state governor) and the ornate neoclassical and Art Deco headquarters of the state ministries. When the state administration relocated to a new administrative campus in 2010, these historic palaces were transformed into the Circuito Liberdade, the largest integrated public cultural and museum complex in Brazil.

1. Palácio da Liberdade (1897) and CCBB Belo Horizonte

• Palácio da Liberdade: Designed by architect José de Magalhães in a French Second Empire eclectic style and inaugurated in 1897, the former governor's palace features a monumental wrought-iron staircase forged in Belgium, parquet floors of Brazilian hardwoods, neoclassical ceiling murals, and landscaped English gardens behind iron gates; check the official Circuito Liberdade portal for weekend visitation and guided tour bookings.
• Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB Belo Horizonte): Occupying the monumental six-storey 1930 neoclassical former Secretariat of the Interior and Justice on the western flank of the square, CCBB BH opened in 2013 after a meticulous restoration. Its glass-roofed central courtyard, grand marble staircases, theatres, and 1,200 square metres of exhibition galleries host major international art shows and a lively courtyard café.

2. Memorial Minas Gerais Vale and MM Gerdau (Museum of Mines & Metal)

• Memorial Minas Gerais Vale: Housed inside the 1910 eclectic former Finance Secretariat, this deeply engaging cultural museum uses immersive scenography engineered with contemporary Brazilian filmmakers and designers to bring the history of Minas Gerais to life, from eighteenth-century Baroque ateliers and colonial pantries to rooms dedicated to writers Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Guimarães Rosa.
• MM Gerdau, Museu das Minas e do Metal: Located directly across the gardens in the striking rose-pink 1897 former Secretariat of Education (Prédio Rosa), MM Gerdau celebrates the geological wealth that gave the state of "General Mines" its name, displaying forty-four interactive rooms and the historic mineral collection started by Emperor Dom Pedro II.

3. Edifício Niemeyer (1954) and the Public Library

Standing at the southwestern corner of the square like a sculptural wave of concrete and glass, the residential Edifício Niemeyer (designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1954 and completed in 1960) was built on the lot of the former Castelinho mansion. Its completely curve-wrapped facade of horizontal brise-soleil sunshades echoes the rolling silhouette of the surrounding Serra do Curral mountains, paired across the street with Niemeyer's 1954 Biblioteca Pública Estadual Luiz de Bessa. From the square, you can stroll straight south into Savassi or west into Lourdes for lunch.