MEMORY OF THE WORLD NOMINATION FORM
Fundo Novacap- Nova Capital do Brasil
(Brazil)
Ref N° 2008-55
PART A - ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
1. Identity and Location
The documentary heritage of the NOVACAP — NOVA CAPITAL DO BRASIL fonds
comprises 458 linear meters of paper documents, along with photographs, motion pictures,
drawings, blueprints and maps covering the odyssey of constructing Brasilia City. Likewise,
the documentary heritage also covers the preceding 1892-1960 events that led to the
inauguration of the new capital in 1960. The documents are stored and safeguarded under the
custody of the Federal District Public Archive. Novacap is the state-controlled company
responsible for building Brasilia.
The Companhia Urbanizadora da Nova Capital do Brasil - Novacap has been set up under
Federal Act No. 2874 of September 19, 1956, as a joint venture company, with 51 per cent of
its shares owned by the Federal Government. The company was created at the request of
President Juscelino Kubitschek for the purpose of planning, implanting and building a new
capital in Brazil. To prevent political harassments which could eventually retard the
construction of the new capital the Novacap Co. had been founded with such a greater
administrative autonomy, so that its board could, practically alone, decide every necessary
measure by itself.
Engineer Israel Pinheiro, who was appointed president of NOVACAP, managed the new
company all through the construction works of Brasilia City. And then, upon Brasilia opening,
Mr. Pinheiro was nominated the first Mayor of the new capital on May 7, 1960. Other directors
of NOVACAP board were as following: Ernesto Silva, Administrative director; Mr. Bernardo
Sayão, Technical director and Mr. Iris Meinberg (*), Financial director.
In addition to planning and building Brasília City, NOVACAP was also in charge of
commercializing the land sites included in the Federal Capital territory. Following the opening
of Brasilia and the inauguration of the Federal District municipality, the Federal Government,
by force of the Act 3,751 of April 13, 1960, has transferred to the new prefecture its
NOVACAP own shares. But, as soon as the years passed by, and due mainly to political,
administrative transformations, the NOVACAP had just lost some of its initial features.
Nowadays, the company is subordinated to Federal District’s Secretariat of Public Works,
devoted principally to Brasilia’s urban activities.
NOVACAP documentary heritage also stores some of the original projects enlisted in
Brasilia’s Pilot Plan contest, which was won by architect Lúcio Costa. Flexibly enough, Costa’s
plan is a clear, direct, disciplined urban project. Primarily simple, new, open and free, the new
plan has promoted dividing the town, as much as possible, into specialized quarters, in
accordance to their specific scopes, such as working, dwelling, circulating, recreational
activities. As far as this sense is concerned, Brasilia is the very essence of a modernist city.
Indeed, the ambitious economic plan masterminded by President Kubitschek for developing
Brazil in late 1950s included the construction of a brand-new Brasil’s federal capital as an
expression of the country’s unity, confidence and super-modernity.
1
Lúcio Costa’s project has synthesized the political, economic, social aspirations of those who,
at the time, believed that a new urban configuration would promote the transformation of the
society. Moreover, according to said architect, Brasilia should be conceived not as a simple,
urban agglomeration to satisfactory fulfill the vital functions of any modern city, however
bearing, in addition, the attributes pertaining to a country’s federal capital.
Among the paper documentary heritage of the NOVACAP fonds there are the original
drawings made by Oscar Niemeyer, the architect who projected Brasilia’s monumental
buildings. In 1956, president Kubitschek himself invited Niemeyer to cooperate in the general
concept of Brazil’s new federal capital. Then, he cooperated on organizing the Pilot Plan
national contest and took part on its judging committee. As a matter of fact, Niemeyer’s projects
are renowned all the world over and due to his drawings, Brasilia City is deemed nowadays the
biggest ever modernistic architectonic complex in the world.
The NOVACAP fonds is thus composed by the rich documentation produced along the
complex process for building and opening Brasilia. The process for building the New Capital of
the Latin American largest country lasted three years and ten months. The NOVACAP Fund’s
documentary heritage just witnesses and discloses the involvement of thousands of workers
who, acknowledging President Kubitschek‘s call had moved themselves to Brazil’s Central
Plateau in order to, not only building the new capital, but likewise believing they were
contributing for a new Brazil.
A special attention should be drawn to the outstanding meaning of the several technical
reports on the so-called Cerrado grassland. The Cerrado is sort of a vast savanna of more than
1.2 million square miles located in Brazil's Central Plateau, covering more than one-quarter of
the country. And the above mentioned reports have aimed at selecting there the ideal site where
to erect the new capital. The gathered, stored data allow researchers to establish the history of
the Brazilian Cerrado, as they describe the perceptions, worries and suggestions prevailing ever
since the 19th Century. The most significant document is the Relatório da Comissão
Exploradora do Planalto Central do Brasil, Missão Cruls – 1892-1894 (Report of the
Exploration Commission of Brazil’s Central Plateau, the 1892-1894 Cruls Mission), a thick
volume consisting of Portuguese and French texts, the latter being the original language of the
documents, photos, tables, calculations and drawings, together with an atlas with 33 maps of the
region surveyed. According to historians, said report is the first environmental impact on
Brazil’s Cerrado ecosystem and it also includes a number of notebooks written by Hastimphilo
de Moura1, a member of said Committee. Such manuscripts bear Moura’s personal view of the
events of that time, as well as a description of the Committee’s day-by-day events.
Altogether there are 458 linear meters of paper documents, as well as a number of motion
pictures (cinematographic films, VHS, U-matic and Betacam videotapes), maps, blueprints,
photo mosaics, negatives and microfilms.
This documentary heritage has got a greater importance and singularity, for Brasilia City has
been nominated in 1987, by Unesco, a Historic Heritage of Mankind. As a matter of fact, such
title has placed Brasilia among the greatest cultural creations of mankind, and likewise a
defining model for human works of future generations.
Being Brasília City a Historic Heritage of Mankind, all the NOVACAP’s documentary
heritage has now the greatest function of warranting the necessary protection of the ideas,
principles and, above all, the utopia that guided the construction of the greatest architectural,
urban site in the world, which had originated from the principles of the Athens Charter.
2
2. DATA ON THE AUTHOR OF THE PROPOSITION
2.1 Name
Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal
2.2 The relation with the proposed documental heritage
The Federal District Public Archive is a public institution created by the Decree No. 8
530. It is aimed at preserving the documental memory of Brasilia Federal District and its scope
is accomplished by gathering the historic documents that are produced and/or received by the
Government of the Federal District’s bodies, and likewise by the normative actions of its filing
operations. All these documents are stored and preserved under the custody of the above
mentioned Public Archive.
2.3 People for contacts
Luiz Ribeiro de Mendonça
Superintendent Director and C.E.O., Arquivo Público
do Distrito Federal
Euler Frank Lacerda Barros
Director of Permanent Archive
Silvia Regina Viola de Castro
Director of Surveys
Elias Manoel da Silva
Cultural Director
2.4 Address
Setor de Áreas Públicas – SAP – Lote B – Bloco 41 – NOVACAP Brasília – DF .
Brasil
Phone: 55 (61) 3361.1454
Fax: 55 (61) 3233.2191
E-mail: arpdf.df@gmail.com
Home page: www.arpdf.df.gov.br
3. IDENTITY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE DOCUMENTARY HERITAGE
3.1
Name and identification details of the items being nominated
Name:
FUNDO NOVACAP- NOVA CAPITAL DO BRASIL
3.2 Description
The NOVACAP Fund’s documentary heritage is composed of the documents produced and
accumulated by NOVACAP Co. during the construction works of Brasilia City. All documents
have been originated from the company’s technical, administrative operations, together with
precedent reports and manuscripts dealing with the creation of NOVACAP, which were joined
along the process of selecting a site for building up the new capital. The gathering of the said
documentary heritage was made in 1987, upon the foundation of the Federal District Public
Archive.
3
Formal Title

Fundo NOVACAP – NOVA CAPITAL DO BRASIL
Limiting dates

1892 – 1980
Quantification per documental gender




Textual materials: 458 linear meters of textual documents
Cinematographic: 91 units (motion picture films, VHS, U-matic, Betacam vídeo tapes),
6.357 film negatives and photo contacts, 1.114 microfilm rolls.
Sound band: 1 roll
Iconographic:: 1.646 maps, miscellaneous blueprints, 41 photo mosaics, 1.712
amplified photos, 2.643 diapositives
Supporting materials






Paper
Films
VHS, U-matic tapes
DVD
Negatives, transparencies
Microfilms
This documentary heritage is divided into 5 groups





Precedent
Presidency
Finances
Admimistrative
Technical
Preceding Group:
The preceding group encompasses documents prior to NOVACAP creation. They refer to the
final of the 19th Century up to 20th Century. The important documentary studies
accomplished by the 1892-1894 Cruls Mission are therein included.
THE CRULS MISSION DOCUMENTS
The Article 3 of the 1891 Federal Constitution has determined that “a 14,409 square
kilometers area, located in the Republic’s central plateau, to be opportunely delimitated, shall
belong to the State, who intends to erect the future Brazil’s Federal Capital”. At the time, the
Federal Government appointed a 22-people committee, the Exploring Commission of Brazil’s
Central Plateau, aiming at delimitating and researching a site for building the new federal
capital.
During a seven-month working term, from the middle of 1892 up to the beginning of
1893, the Committee members traveled some 4,000 kilometers over. And they have selected a
site where to build the new Federal District, an estate having the springs of three major natural
flowing streams: the Maranhão River, tributary to Tocantins River, the Descoberto River, and
the São Bartolomeu River, the two latter flowing into the Paraná River. Facilitating the
4
demarcation task, and likewise to avoid boundary conflicts, the Committee has adopted sort of a
quadrilateral site made of two parallel lines and two meridians.
The results of the exploring journey are found in the “Relatório da Comissão de
Exploração do Planalto Central do Brasil – Relatório Cruls” (Brazilian Central Plateau
Exploration Committee, Cruls Mission Report) that consists of a textual work written both in
Portuguese and in French, the latter being the original document. The report deals with the
region‘s topography, climate, hydrology, geology, fauna, flora, mineral and natural resources,
together with photos, tables, calculations, drawings and an atlas with 83 plans of the area
surveyed.
Presidency, Finances, Administrative and Technical groups
Essentially, these groups refer to documents relating to the very construction of Brasilia City,
in the 1956-1960 term, as produced and accumulated during the building of the new capital.
Relating documents are textual materials, audiovisuals, drawings and maps dealing with the
construction of the new capital.
The Textual Documentation
The paper documentation is composed of 458 linear meters of written documents such as
judicial suits, letters, meeting’s minute reports, projects, balance sheets, information bulletins,
fiscal books, scrap books, and miscellaneous media written documents dealing with the
construction of the new federal capital.
The archival fonds also holds a number of documents of great value, among of which the
minutes of the judging meeting that decided to declare the architect Lúcio Costa winner of the
Brasiilia’s Pilot Plan Contest. The four referees of the national contest were world famous
personalities: architects Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil), William Holford (United Kingdom), Stamo
Papadaki (USA), and André Sive (France). Likewise, the original musical scores of Vinicius de
Morais/Tom Jobim’s “Sinfonia da Alvorada” song can be found in the Fund’s files.
The paper documents, photos and motion pictures referring to the construction of public
buildings projected by architect Oscar Niemeyer are also famous. . These public buildings are
deemed the largest outdoor architectural museum in the world.
Audiovisual documentation
NOVACAP’s archives have stored an original, unique, audiovisual documentation recording
the history of constructing Brasilia, comprised of motion pictures films, VHS, U-matic,
Betacam magnetic rolls, photo mosaics, negative films, photo-contacts, enlarged photos,
transparencies, and microfilm rolls.
The archived photos covering the construction of Brasília recording the daily life of the
civilian laborers in their miscellaneous working sites compose a wonderful background, as they
depict images of the buildings and monuments during their erecting stages. In such images the
so-called candangos — a local slang for civil workers — transform into reality the drawings
made by Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, Athos Bulcão, and Roberto Burle Marx. Likewise, they
record the shape and conditions of the existing spaces, vegetation, water streams, the Cerrado
grassland and the geography in general, prior to construction.
A major part of said photos were taken by Mario Fontenele1, the official photographer
engaged in recording the 1956-1960 construction works. The images covering the preceding
1892-1894 term have been taken by Henrique Morrize, a member of the Cruls Mission —
Brazil’s Central Plateau Exploring Committee.
5
Brasília construction motion pictures
Initially produced in 16 mm and 25 mm, the archived motion pictures films describe the
features of the construction of Brasília, starting from the then prevailing technologies and
working conditions, as well as the way how the President of the Republic himself managed the
works. In order to preserve such a material, the Federal District Public Archive managed to
copy in VHS all available motion pictures films and is presently moving to DVD technology to
protect original films and facilitate eventual consultations.
The above mentioned motion picture set refer to a time when men such as JK, Bernardo
Sayão, Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and the candangos themselves believed in and
accomplished the impossible. Furthermore, indirectly speaking, the recorded images also show
that some other works, which run parallel to the city construction, as the Belém-Brasilia
roadway, had the scope of linking the country, from the north to the south, while providing the
necessary access to the new capital.
Some of the above mentioned motion pictures are as following
Motion picture:
Paranoá River waterfall, prior to the dam construction and the existing vegetation seen from
the Cerrado grassland
Motion picture:
Bird-eye’s view of Alvorada Palace and civil laborers during the construction works
Motion picture:
Civil engineer Bernardo Sayão and the construction of Belém-Brasília roadway
Motion picture:
Brasília City: the popular dwellings, the so-called Free Town and the arrival of civil workers
Motion picture:
May 1, 1959, Labour Day celebration in Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil
Maps and blueprints
The site where Brasilia is located today had been thoroughly surveyed prior to the
construction of the city. Existing maps and blueprints covering such works had recorded the
physical, natural features of the region, such as its hydrography and flora, and this
documentation is largely consulted nowadays by Brazilian, foreign researchers who investigate
the impact of human being over environment.
.
4. JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROPOSAL AND/OR ITS EVALUATION ACCORDING
THE CRITERIA FOR SELECTION
4.1 Authenticity
All documents stored and kept for safeguarding by the NOVACAP-NOVA CAPITAL DO
BRASIL fonds are the original and authentic ones, as certified by Federal District
Government’s Decree No. 7,492 of April 27, 1983 that made permanent the documentation
produced and accumulated by NOVACAP up to 1960.
6
The NOVACAP – NOVA CAPITAL DO BRASIL fonds which has been selected by Brazil’s
National Committee of the Memory of the World Program, applying for its nomination in
UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program, still keeps almost the majority of the documents
dealing with the construction of the new federal capital of Brazil. Brasilia City architectonic,
urbane concept is, no doubt, the greatest modernistic urban complex in the world, as far as the
principles of the Athens Charter are concerned.
In 1970, Brazilian governors attending a summon meeting of Brazilian State heads, signed the
so-called Compromisso de Brasilia charter, which has resulted from the State Governors’
Meeting for Researching the National, Historical, Artistical heritage. Brasilia Federal District’s
Governor, who was one of the signers of said document, has recommended, among some other,
further steps, that the existing documentary heritage should be preserved.
Complying with above recommendations, Brazil’s Federal District Government promulgated
the Decree No. 7.492, of April 27, 1983, the Article 1 of which deals with preserving the
historic heritage of documents of the construction of Brasilia. In addition, the Article 2 of said
decree reads that “any action provoking the destruction, mutilation or deterioration of the
documents referred to by this decree shall be deemed crime against the Federal District
documentary heritage, and as consequence punished in accordance to penal dispositions in
force, irrespective of further civil reparations”.
Historians of the world architecture recognize NOVACAP’s motion filming documentary
heritage as the evidence of the audacious and complexity of building a new federal capital in a
continental-sized country like Brazil. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that the Brazilian
civilization, all along the preceding centuries had been engaged in populating the country’s
littoral. Thus, the NOVACAP’S documentation testifies the geopolitical change in the State’s
behavior, while recording the moving of part of the population to inland areas. The construction
of Brasilia Federal District City fundaments and motivates, for sure, the definitive conquering of
Brazil’s interior. NOVACAP’S documentation is, no doubt, sort of a birth certificate of a new
country.
The list of the civil workers, with their names, towns of origin and hours worked gives
one, in a singular, unique manner, the chance to depict the history of such laborers, while
showing from what regions they had come from most to work in the building of the new
capital.
Emphasizing even more the singularity of said heritage, in December, 1987, during a
historical meeting, the UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has nominated three new world
sites as Cultural Heritages of Mankind: Brazil’s Brasilia City, China’s Great Wall and Athens’s
Acropolis. On the occasion, French architect Leon Pressouyre, who related and advocated the
Brasilia nomination said that Brazil’s intention, building a new federal capital, was to protect a
singular, modern work, for Brasília is the sole city built in 20th Century, from scratch, to be the
capital of a country.
Above event proves that the documentation of the construction of Brasilia has a singular
meaning for the world history in general.
Leon Pressoyere’s words, on that occasion, are worth to be remembered ”The creation of
Brasilia, due to the great challenge of her project and likewise the amplitude of means
employed, is indeed a fact of the greatest meaning in the history of urbanization”.
4.2
Do filed documents meet one or more criteria on: a) time; b) place; c) people; d)
subject and/or theme; and e) shape and style?
a)
Time
7
1892 - 1960
Documents referring to the construction of Brasilia could be inserted in a moment when Brazil
was seeking a new identity, passing from an agricultural, seaside devoted country to an urban,
industrial nation should her vast, inland space be occupied. Furthermore, with the construction
of Brasilia, Lucio Costa’s plan and Oscar Niemeyer’s drawings have become sort of reference
in world architecture and urbanization, as they have turned real, in Brasilia site, the concepts of
the modernistic architecture.
b)
Place
Brazil
NOVACAP’s documentary heritage concerning the building of Brasília is sort of a restarting
point in the history of Brazil and Latin America, as well. In fact, Brasilia is never seen solely as
the new federal capital. Brasilia is indeed a point of departure for conquering the Amazon
Region and accomplishing the definitive settlement of central Brazil, by joining together,
through her interior, a definitive, integrated nation. Said documentation thus testifies Brasilia
City as the starting point for Brazil’s new economic, industrial, social progress.
The construction of Brasília, the new capital of Brazil, has resulted from the will, courage and
dreams of men like JK, Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and many others who, in the future, shall
get relevance and importance in the world architecture and urbanization. Besides these people
there were many other anonymous civil workers who the historiographers have dubbed the
‘candangos’, officially enrolled by NOVACAP herself, and by subcontracting constructing
corporations as well. These unskilled laborers have been the real support on constructing
streets, squares, avenues, buildings and monuments of the new capital.
Annexed hereby there is a summarized profile of some of the people involved in Brasilia
construction history.
OUTLINE OF PROPOSALS
The NOVACAP – NOVA CAPITAL DO BRASIL fonds records all phases of constructing
the new capital of Brazil, starting with the studies that preceded her creation up to opening the
city. With Fund’s documentary heritage files in view, it is possible for one to reconstitute the
history of the construction of Brasilia, beggining from her urbanistic, architectural plans up to
the building techniques used, her creative geniuses, the ‘candango’ civil workers, as well as
many other people, personalities or not, who constructed Brasília.
We do believe that the NOVACAP documentary heritage fonds enabling the reconstitution of
the construction of Brasilia, from its very inception up to the building and urbanization of the
city, deserves in fact to be nominated for Unesco’s Latin American and Caribbean Memory of
the World Program.
5. JURIDICAL INFORMATION
5.1 Owner of the documentary heritage
Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal
Juridical status
Public body
8
The Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal – ArPDF, (Federal District Public Archive)
is a relatively autonomous public body created by the Decree No. 8.530, of March 14, 1985,
subordinated to the Secretariat of Culture of the Federal District.
5.2 Documentary Heritage Curator
Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal
5.3 Legal status
a) Category of ownership
The NOVACAP — Nova Capital do Brasil fonds is a public organization under the
custodian, as from 1987, of the Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal.
b) Accessbility
The are no restrictions regarding the NOVACAP fonds accessibility. Researchers are
properly guided .by the Federal District Public Archive experts. .
Copy right
Upon surveying the documentary heritage fund’s files, researchers are invited to sign down a
legal disclaimer in which they compromise themselves to cite, whenever needed, the names of
the Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal and NOVACAP fund, as per the norms of Law No.
9,610 of February 19, 1998 (Copyright Law) and Law No. 8,159 of January 8, 1991 (Archives
Law).
d) Responsible for the Administration
Arquivo Publico do Distrito Federal
6. ADMINISTRATIVE PLAN
6.1 Is there any administrative plan covering this documentary heritage?
There is an administration plan dealing with the NOVACAP documentary heritage fund. The
Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal, a public institution engaged in storing and preserving the
documentary memory of the Federal District, adopts special norms covering the necessary steps
for caring, storing, preserving and accessing its filing fund. The Arquivo Público keeps in its
staff a number of filing experts and historians, for the purpose.
Information on preservation and safekeeping the existing matters.
Sanitation
All NOVACAP fund’s documents are previously sanitized prior to its storage. In
addition, a preventive sanitization is made every year.
Rooms for storing the documents are periodically cleaned up, in order to avoid insects
and/or further bodies deemed offensive to documents.
Preservation
To ensure the preservation conditions of documents, all norms dealing with the
conservation of the filed items are properly adopted. The Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal
building, for instance, has a number of acclimatized rooms for documents demanding special
climate conditioning such is the case of films — motion pictures or otherwise.
Safekeeping and accessibility
Access to documents store rooms is denied for researchers. After consulting the
surveying instruments list, with the assistance of the Arquivo’s experts, the selected documents
are brought to researchers for consultation.
9
The Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal has adopted a disaster combat plan elaborated in
1991 that is being actualized as from 2007. The plan deals with the fundamental features of
preserving the documentary heritage files, with special emphasis on prevention steps, while
alerting and guiding the Arquivo’s staff on how to act in case of accidents.
CONSULTATION
7.1 Details of consultation
a) Documentary Heritage owner – Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal
b) Member of the National and Regional Committee for Latin America and Caribbean.
Jaime Antunes, Director of National Archive.
7. PART B. COMPLEMENTARY INFORMATIONS
8. RISKS EVALUATION
8.1. Nature and length of menace
RISKS EVALUATION
The Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal is installed in an inappropriate building, i.e;, a
building not constructed especially for filing purposes. To minimize possible damages to stored
documents, some adaptations had been provided. As Brasilia City has a great luminosity, for
the sun shines pratically all the year through, a number of protecting films againts ultrra-violet
rays had been installed. And to protect the stored heritage against damages caused by high
temperatures and low umidity, a daily control system of temperature and umidity had also been
provided. In addition all rooms are air conditioned.
The major part of the documentary heritage fonds items is composed of paper text
documents. The greatest risk of all is the possibility of eventual fire originating from any
eventual, artificial, and/or natural electric discharge caused by rays. To minimize such risks, the
management of the Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal follows the directions recommended by
Brasilia’s Fire Department after inspecting the installations.
As some motion picture films taken during Brasilia construction term are recorded in a
very fragile support, and so demanding restoration, the Federal District Government has
already taken the necessary steps for the purpose.
EVALUATION OF THE PRESERVING STATUS
9.1 The context for preservation
The following is some published works, academic articles and studies covering the
NOVACAP – Nova Capital do Brasil fund.
The NOVACAP´s documentary heritage fund, due to the information nature of her text and
non-text documents is regularly surveyed by researchers, university students, free lancer
workers, employees of the media corporations, television, radio, etc. The results are, besides
others, commercials for radio and TV, academic thesis, dissertations, printed works, and TV
documentaries. Below there is a list of some of these works, the titles of which are translated
into English.
10
Series and documentaries:
 JK’s Series — by Rede Globo — 2006.
 The Invention of Brasília — Documentary by Renato Barbiere — 2006
Dissertations, academic thesis and printed works
 An urban space in Brasília and the trajectory of the popular resistance at
Vila Paranoá — by Luiza Naomi Iwakami — Unb — 1988
 The Brasília project: modernity and history — by Luiz Carlos Lopes — USP
– 1992
 Brasilia: the sphinx’s enigma, the construction and the backstages of Power
— by Luiz Carlos Lopes — Unisinos — 1996
 HJKO: the community goes fighting — by Juliano de Almeida Pirajá — UnB
— 1998
 The Novacap’s role in building Brasilia — by Maria das Graças Teles de
Menezes Pereira — CEUB — 1987
 Woman,“Precious stone”; prostitution and the like in Brasília (1957-1961)
— by Joelma Rodrigues da Silva — UnB — 1995

Breaking the bowels of the soil — by Magno Cirqueira Córdova —
UnB – 2006

Ideology, advertising and the social imaginary in Brasília
construction — by Georgete Medleg Rodrigues — UnB — 1990

Building Brasília — by Luis Sérgio Duarte da Silva —
UnB — 1996

The quotidian and the police: the social living and the police
intervention during the construction of Brasília (1956-1960) — by
Paula Francinete da Silva — UnB — 1994

Candangos, the forgotten heroes — by Débora Rodrigues França —
UCG – 2004
 ‘Catira’ singers and ‘candango’ civil workers: building the present and the
past identity in Planaltina, Federal District — by Inês Gonzaga Zatz – UnB —
1986
 Requirement letters addressed to President Juscelino Kubitschek
along Brasília building works (1956-1960) — by Ronaldo de Castro
Sartori — UnB – 2006
 Myths and living: behavior patterns: analysing Brasilia dwellers’s discourse
— by Themis Quezado de Magalhães — UnB — 1985
 The daily life along the construction works of Brasilia — by Rafael Leoporace
Farret — UnB — 2002
 Federal District’s legislation protecting the documentary heritage

LEI Nº 2.545, de 28 de abril de 2000
Protects documents stored by public archives .
 DECREE Nº 7.492, of April 28, 1983
Turn permanent the overall documentation produced and accumulated
by Novacap up to 1960.
 DECREE Nº 24.205, of November 10, 2003
Regulates the Law Nº 2.545, of April 28, 2000, dealing with protecting
documents stored by public archives
 JOINT SEC/SGA EDICT Nº 18, of May 23, 2006. Establishes procedures for
dispatching to the Federal District Public Archive, the documents generated or
collected by the direct and indirect administration bodies of the Federal District
11

JOINT SEC/SGA EDICT Nº 02, of October 22, 2004. Establishes the
necessary procedures for eliminating documents generated and/or gathered by
the Federal District’s direct and indirect administration bodies, and foundations.
 EDICT¨ Nº 03, of January 22, 1998. Approves the Classification
Code of Archives Documents, together with a Table of Temporality
covering the documents of Federal District’s Direct and Indirect
Administration bodies and foundations.
PART C. NOMINATION PROPOSITION
ARQUIVO PÚBLICO DO DISTRITO FEDERAL
We hereby unconditionally acknowledge the conditions of this present Edict and its
regulations, and certify that all information addressed to UNESCO’s Memory of the
World.
Brazil - Brasília, DF.
March 30 - 2008
Euler Frank Lacerda Barros
Director, Permanent Archive
Luiz Ribeiro de Mendonça
C.E.O., Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal
12
Notas___________________
JUSCELINO KUBITSCHEK
The History of Brasília is inseparable tied up to Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira. Born
in Diamantina, he was formed in Medicine. It began its political career with meteoric ascension:
Boss of Cabinet of the Governor from Minas Gerais, Federal Deputy, Belo Horizonte's Mayor,
Governor from Minas Gerais and finally, in 1956, President of the Republic, of BRAZIL where
developed activity synthesized in the mythical program, " 50 years in five ", implemented
starting from daring Plan of Goals. When beginning its campaign for the Presidency of the
Republic, didn't have the intention of the construction of the new capital. Still during the
presidential campaign, it established the construction of Brasília as “goal-synthesis“ of its
government program. One of the most extraordinary projects of the Brazilian political history.
When being investigated how Brasília was born, JK answered like this: “The answer is simple.
As all the great initiatives, it appeared of an almost anything. The idea of the interiorize process
was old, repairing to the time of the revolucionary movement against the Portuguese
colonialism in Brazil [...] it Fit to me to take to effect the audacious task [...], embracing themes
of the highest interest, as the political geography value of the enterprise, the revolution in the
architecture, the reasons of the plateau, Transbrasiliana, or the national highway, that is, BelémBrasília, the prophecy of Saint João Bosco and other items ".
LUCIO COSTA
Naval engineer's son was born in Toulon, France, but she lived most of its life in Rio de
Janeiro. With formation in the National School of fine arts, Rio de Janeiro, is the author of
several texts and books on art and architecture. He participated of the first group of Brazilian
intellectuals worrying with the preservation of our historical patrimony. When the Brazilian
architecture oscillated among several classic styles, he found in the modernist perspective the
exit for the Brazilian architecture. Invited to project the building headquarters of the then
Ministry of the Education and Culture, in Rio de Janeiro, convinced President Getúlio Vargas to
bring Le Corbusier to Brazil. For Lucio Costa, the building is “the definitive mark of the new
Brazilian architecture, that it must be revealed equally, just built, international pattern and where
the doctrine and the solutions preconized by Le Corbusier they took body for the first time in its
monumental feature ". Starting from 1940, it creates projects influenced by the beginnings and
solutions of the new architecture and urbanization, which agglutinate the elements that will be
present in the “Plano Piloto of Brasília” in a certain way. In 1956, Niemeyer was invited by
President JK to do the urban plan of the new capital. It didn't accept. He suggested that if he
made a national competition. From that moment, Lucio Costa is inseparable of the history of
Brasília, as the own architect-urbanista he liked to affirm: Brasília “is the city that I invented ".
According to the opinion of the judging commission, among the 26 competitive projects, its
plan is clear, direct, fundamentally simple, new, open, free, disciplined without being rigid. "It
is the project that best integrates the monumental elements in the dayly life of the city as federal
capital, presenting coherent, rational composition, of urban essence - a work of art ". Para Lucio
Costa the city should be conceived I don't just eat “URBS ", but as “CIVITAS ", that is to say,
with the necessary attributes to a capital. The use of free areas under the buildings, the
superquadras concept is not just an architectural solution, but a new concept of living. In its zeal
for the urbanistic project of Brasília, it presented in 1987 the document “Revisited Brasília": a
group of relative recommendations to the complementation, preservation, densification and
urban expansion of Brasília. It could not be different for that whose, in interview, refer to the
city as: " Brasília was a personal thing of my ".
OSCAR NIEMEYER
Its professional history acquired independent autonomy of the construction of Brasília.
But it went when projecting the public buildings of the new capital that its fame reached
international prominence. Oscar Niemeyer was born in Rio de Janeiro, Neighborhood das
Laranjeiras, 1907. In 1928, after concluding the Secondary Course, he married Annita Baldo,
13
daughter of immigrants Italians of Pádua. The responsibilities of the marriage took it to work in
the father's typography. In 1929, he entered in the National School of fine arts, which was
driven by Lucio Costa starting from 1931. Graduated as Engineer-architect in 1934. In 1935, he
asked to work in the office of the architecture Lucio Costa, where he knew Le Corbusier, which
was in Brazil at the request of Lucio Costa, to help in the elaboration of the project of the
building of the Ministry of the Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro, the today Capanema's
Palace. As Lucio Costa says: “It was with the coming of Le Corbusier, a difficult initiative,
exclusive of mine, that Oscar Niemeyer personality appeared. He worked more than one year in
my office without revealing any exceptional quality.” [...] He exploded with the conviviality of
that group that worked with Le Corbusier. In 1937, it elaborated the project for the building of
the Beneficent Association Work of the Cradle in Rio de Janeiro, first individual project. In
1940, invited by JK, Belo Horizonte's Mayor elaborated the project of a new neighborhood in
the city: Pampulha. In two words: “Brasília began in Pampulha. What I did in Brasília it was the
natural direction of my architect career, in that phase of the life ". In 1947, it was invited to
integrate the architects' team that would project the headquarters of the United Nations. Its
project was chosen unanimously. In 1962, coordinator of the School of Architecture of the
University of Brasília was named - UnB, which left, with more 200 teachers, in protest against
the military governments' politics university student. Starting from 1967, declared communist, it
was impeded of working in Brazil. He moved to Paris: “The military governments tried to
paralyze me, turning difficult for me to work in Brazil. They finished me giving the best
opportunity than I already had to enlarge the reach of my architecture. I went to the arranged
exterior to show what knew how to do the Brazilian architects, the one that point our
constructive technique had arrived. Finally, I didn't want them to see me as an Indian ".At least
181 buildings of Niemeyer are out of Brazil. The international bibliography its respect reaches
36 books. It can be read on him in French, English, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, German
and Greek. In Brazil his works are in eight capitals and thirty municipal districts. Niemeyer
raised in Brasília 83 buildings.
LUIZ CRULS
The choice of the area where it would be built Brasília, and even the choice of the
ranch, in spite of other researches and reports elaborated later, is deeply tied up to the Report of
the Exploiting Commission of the Central Plateau of Brazil and the Commission of Studies of
the New Capital of the Union, both led by Luiz Cruls, astronomer and director of the National
Observatory, in Rio de Janeiro. Besides the original edition, in Portuguese and French, of the
report of the first commission, the Public archive possesses the manuscript book of Hastimphilo
de Moura, which narrated the first trip in full detail. He was born in Diest, Belgium, on January
21, 1848. In 1874, influenced by Brazilians that studied in Belgium, he decided to visit Brazil.
During the ship trip knew Joaquim Nabuco, which began its diplomatic career in that time. This
offered to collaborate so that Cruls found some professional activity in Brazil, mainly in the
geodesy area and astronomy, one of Emperor's Dom Pedro II preferred sciences. In Brazil it was
received by the Emperor. In 1875, due to the researches in the field of the astronomy, he
obtained the title that allowed to be admitted as attached astronomer, in the Imperial
Observatory of Rio de Janeiro. In 1881 the Emperor signs the naturalization act and, in the same
year, it names him as first astronomer of the National Observatory. With the proclamation of
the Republic in 1889, his name will definitively be tied up to the history of the interiorization of
the capital. The first Constitution of the Republic (1891), in Artº. 3rd, it determines the
demarcation of an area of 14.400Km2 to be established in the future, in the Central Plateau, the
Capital of Brazil. Answering to that constitutional imperative, Floriano Peixoto, after the
renouncement of Deodoro de Fonseca, creates the Exploiting Commission of the Central
Plateau of Brazil with the objective of demarcating it referred area. The leadership of the
commission was made by Luiz Cruls: "I have the most absolute conviction that the change of
the capital, informed of the political interests that they are hold of it, it will result for Brazil, its
prosperity and future development, the most beneficial consequences, which nobody can
evaluate ". The success of the first expedition was approved by the works of the Commission of
Studies of the New Capital of the Union, with the base in the plant of the area, already defined
14
in the works of the first commission. Acording to Ronaldo Rogério de Freitas Mourão, the
importance, the scientific rigidity and the love to the nature that guided Luiz Cruls and its
companions in its researches on the fauna, the flora and the soil, "make the most important
ecological documents of our history of the reports". As they measure the altitude, the flow of the
rivers, the humidity of the air and the intensity of the rains, during almost four years, those
cientists elaborate, one century before, the procedure that the constitution of 1988 turned
obligatory: the accomplishment of studies of environmental impact before any important
construction. With effect, the reports of the two expeditions to the Central Plateau, of 1893 and
1896, constitute the first two Reports of Impact of the Enviroment/RIMA - (Relatórios de
Impacto de Meio Ambiente/RIMA) accomplished in Brazil ".
POLLI COELHO
The definitive indication of the limits of Federal District was made by the “Polli
Coelho's Mission" named by President Eurico Gaspar Dutra. Named to preside the commission,
General Djalma Polli Coelho, Director of the Geographical Service of the Army. As the
introduction of the report affirms: " The Commission judged that it is enough, in the current
moment, to create and to organize, in good technical and administrative conditions, the new
Federal District, giving it a convenient geographical situation and an extensive territory, with
appropriate limits, in such way that they are for ever insured the great results that the Nation
hopes to obtain today, as they waited in the past, of the change of its capital to the central
plateau of the country”. The Commission of Studies for the Location of the New Capital, it was
established in response to the fourth article, of the Transitory Dispositions of the Constitution of
1946 that it had established: " The Capital of the Union will be transferred to the Central Plateau
of the Country ", besides establishing the period for the beginning of the location studies, norms
on the date of the transfer, as well as to the destiny that would have the old capital, Rio de
Janeiro. In August 12 of 1948 General Djalma Polli Coelho gives to the President Eurico
Gaspar Dutra the final resolution, indicating the area of the Central Plateau goiano as place
chosen for the new capital of Brazil. It is important to stand out that the Polli Coelho's Mission
endorses the solution proposal for the Cruls' Commission; however, it enlarges the area
suggested by Luiz Cruls, extending it in direction to some rivers that should work as natural
limits. The new area was well-known as “Rectangle of the Congress ".
MARECHAL JOSÉ PESSOA
His importance is ahead tied up with the fight of the Commission of Location of the
New Capital. In 1953, after the National Congress approves the suggestions of the Polli
Coelho's Commission, Getúlio Vargas was authorized by the Legislative to begin the definitive
studies seeking to the transfer of the capital to the Central Plateau. Ahead of the Commission of
Location of the New Capital General Aguinaldo Caiado de Castro is placed. With Getúlio
Vargas's death the General is substituted by the Marechal José Pessoa. Him will acquire an
extreme importance for its tenacious fight that he carries in defining the exact place for the
construction of the new capital as well as for the inclement fight in the dispossession of the
necessary area to the construction of the new capital, before it refuses it of the actual President
Café Filho. It sews an agreement with the Governor from Goiás, Juca Ludovico, and it gets that
the government goiano begins the dispossession process. In that way, before even of JK to take
ownership in the Presidency of the Republic, the State of Goiás, it had already made the first
dispossession of lands, more specifically, Fazenda Bananal plantation lands, where today it is
the city of Brasília. During the 20 months that presided the Commission of Location, Marechal
José Pessoa became the greatest responsible person for the consolidation of the transfer project.
It is known that, if wasn't the providences taking for him, the Government of JK would never
had the time to choose the ranch, to dispossess the area and still to build the capital. It is one
more of the illustrious ignored in the construction of Brasília.
ISRAEL PINHEIRO
Certain time, overlying Brasília, JK affirmed: “Without Israel, i would never get to build
Brasília ". Or still, Oscar Niemeyer testimony: “I still remind that admirable man, that in the old
15
times of Brasília he gave us example of work and determination. Early, very early, Israel was
already to run the canter of service, to take the most urgent providences, to take care of the
transports and of the dwellings. Without bureaucracy, took the responsibility of everything,
cheering up with his fraternal and talkative presence". Israel Pinheiro was born in Caeté, Minas
Gerais, in 1896. All the reports of him confirms: he was a hard, willful man, ruler, direct and
dry. Such characteristics made to appear a dynamic boss, objective and extremely practical.
Certainly the knowledge of that profile did that JK chose it for the thorny mission of
administering the construction of Brasília with President of NOVACAP. And he did in such a
way that surprised the opponents of JK, which commented that Brasília would become the
President's political grave. Israel Pinheiro, even before assuming the coordination of the
construction of NOVACAP was the owner of a respectable biography. As a constituent in 1946
it was defender of the transfer of the capital for the interior. With other deputies from Minas
Gerais, among them JK, defended the construction of the capital in the Triangle Mineiro. It led
the constitution of the Vale do Rio Doce Company, and it exercised several activities invited by
President Getúlio Vargas. As Ronaldo Costa Couto says, “Israel Pinheiro was the great shore of
the construction of the city [Brasília]. It ordered and countermand, promised and it executed,
turned and unturned the table. It solved the things. Its contribution is underestimated. The
recognition doesn't still correspond to the rendered services". We complete with Oscar
Niemeyer comment: "Sometimes i think is spoken a little about Israel Pinheiro. He was very
important. Without him, Brasília was not made. He was an enterprising, active subject, who was
devoted to Brasília entirely ". We finish with Nelson Rodrigues' comment:" Forces of the
nature, he wound, it rained, it thundered, it lightened ".
ERNESTO SILVA
He was born in Rio de Janeiro, on September 17, 1914. Graduated Bachelor in Sciences
and Letters in the year of 1933. In 1936 he became an Army official, where it would reach until
Colonel's position (in 1961). Later, in 1946, Graduated Doctor for the School of Medicine and
Surgery of Rio de Janeiro. It possesses several specialization courses of Pediatrics in Brazil and
abroad he is an author of many scientific works. It was secretary of the “Commission of
Location of the New Capital of Brazil " (1953/1955); president of the " Commission of Planning
of the Construction and of the Change of the Federal Capital " (1956); director of NOVACAP
(1956/1961); and consultant of the Educational Foundation and of the Hospital Fundation of DF
(1960/1961). He lives even today in Brasília. Now he is president and member of several organs
linked to the areas of Health and of Culture in DF. Be stood out his importance in the
competition for the Plano Piloto of Brasília. As Oscar Niemeyer, JK had invited him to
elaborate the plan pilot of the new capital. It refused and he suggested organizing a competition,
which JK answered: “I cannot wait the results of that competition. It is better than that you
make the plan of Brasília´. I refused and I never told this episode to anybody ". It was in this
context that Ernesto Silva organized the competition for the Pilot Plan and it accompanied the
whole selection process. On March 16, 1957 it was published officially that the winner of the
competition was Lucio Costa, the last to register its project.
OS CANDANGOS
A group of anonym’s men and women were present, beside the “great characters “in the
construction of the city. It is JK himself who recognizes the importance: "... Like all of you,
candangos, I am proud of belonging. I attended since the first hours your arrival to the Plateau; I
saw as you got in the work; as you cheered up, men in search of a better destiny, not just for
youselfs, but also for your Country. Your idealism encouraged myself... it is not for word and
applauses that you manifest your pleasure and the enthusiasm...: it is for the action ". According
to Márcio de Oliveira, in its thesis of Graduation " Brasília: the myth in the trajectory of the
nation ", like everything indicates was JK himself who nicknamed the workers that went for the
construction of the new capital, of CANDANGOS. They were, in fact, the pioneers of Brasília.
They came from the closest and from the most distant areas: Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo,
Rio Grande do Sul and most of all from Nordeste. Atracted by the work and for the perspective
of a better life, after building it, they had to be satisfied in living in the calls "satellite-cities "
16
that appeared and they consolidated around the " Pilot " Plan. The life conditions and of work of
the candangos were particularly difficult, in spite of they find employment easily. In the
recruiting it was prioritized the bachelors or married that had left its families in to the origin
areas, because there were not enough lodgings for couples. In its majority the workers were
housed in great camps built in wood. The accommodations were collective and the beds were
sleeping berths. Most of the camps were located beside the stonemasons of works, allowing
larger control to discipline and optimization of the time of work, especially because there were
several shifts so that the work was uninterrupted, what was well-known as " rhythm of Brasília
". The urgent need of labor turned less rigorous the selection process. So, peasants and other
workers without any qualification were transformed of one hour from another in workers of the
civil construction. Be stood out, however, that is not very commented the deep adhesion feeling
manifested by the workers. There was the mission sense. There was the conscience of, when
building the new capital, a new country was being built, without the wounds really known by
the workers. The candagos, in fact, felt part of an important and necessary of the success of that
contract job. In fact, it is notorious the constant, charismatic and nice presence of JK motivating
the workers. Are many candangos depositions that are moved reminding of the visits of JK in
the stonemasons of works, always late of the night. For all of this, even knowing the difficulties,
the candangos felt proud about what they were doing. They were the privileged ones because
they were building, with its own hands the new nation. Knowing about those many difficulties,
the birth of a new city impregnated the soul of those workers for a renaissance where everybody
seemed the same.
HASTIMPHILO DE MOURA
Hastimphilo de Moura Brazilian Army’s engineer, who studied under Professor Luiz Cruls, in a
military academy, was later invited to take part in the so-called Cruls Mission. He wrote his
technical and personal notes in 6 notebooks, donated by his family to the Fe deral District
Public Archive.
MÁRIO FONTENELE
Mário Fontenele, NOVACAP’s photographer, has recorded all the construction works of
Brazilian new federal capital. . His photos are seen all the world over, although few are who
give him the credit for the photos. As a matter of fact his lenses have recorded not only the
erection of the buildings themselves but also the existing interaction between Man and the
works.
17