Belo Horizonte

Buildings Oscar Niemeyer designed in the 1940s are spread around an artificial lake; UNESCO listed the ensemble in 2016. The shore road is long, so rather than walking it all, people link the stops by bike or car.

A small church made of linked waves of concrete roof, its rear wall clad in Candido Portinari's blue tile mural. The design was so radical that the Church put off consecrating it for years.

An indoor market crammed with more than 400 shops for cheese, cachaca and spices. Deep in the aisles every bar counter has people standing over a beer, so grocery runs and drinking share one roof.

A square ringed by former state government buildings, now turned into museums and cultural spaces. A curving apartment block by Niemeyer stands on one side, and the museums sit so close that several fit into one day on foot.

A vast open-air museum in Brumadinho to the southwest, its contemporary art pavilions dotted through tropical gardens. One day cannot cover it, and a ticket for the electric carts circling the grounds is sold separately.

A hillside square on the Serra do Curral south of the city, named after John Paul II said Mass here in 1980. The city filling the basin lies spread out below, and crowds gather at sunset.

A craft fair that takes over Avenida Afonso Pena every Sunday, its stalls running for several blocks. Mornings are cooler, and around midday the crowd drifts over to the food stalls.

A football ground opened in 1965, where Brazil lost 7-1 to Germany in the 2014 World Cup semi-final. Between fixtures, tours lead through the dressing rooms and a football museum.

A national park about 100 km northeast, with waterfalls and clear streams tucked between rocky uplands. The big falls take a walk of several hours there and back, so hikers pack water and food.

A museum housed in the former central railway station, gathering thousands of tools from bygone workplaces such as forges and mills. It sits right beside a metro station, which suits a rainy day.

A concrete produce market opened in 1963; vegetable stalls and print shops still fill its ground floor. From around 2018 small bars, breweries and kitchens took over the empty second and third floors, and on Fridays every corridor becomes a party.

An old gold-rush town a little over 20 km east, settled before Ouro Preto. The small church of Nossa Senhora do O keeps gilded paintings in Chinese style, and jabuticaba trees grow all over the hillsides, so the town holds a yearly festival for the fruit.

An old neighbourhood of low houses east of the centre, home to the street corner where Milton Nascimento and friends gathered in the late 1960s to create the Clube da Esquina sound. Botecos crowd the blocks, so the square fills on weekend evenings.

An 18th-century chapel and shrine crown a tall rocky peak in Caete to the east. Drive the winding road to its end and the Belo Horizonte basin and the iron mines around it lie spread below. Gusts rake the summit, so carry a jacket in high summer too.

A downtown park opened with the city in 1897 and laid out by French landscaper Paul Villon. Ponds with rowing boats and vintage fairground rides sit under big trees, and the Palacio das Artes concert hall stands on its edge.

A limestone cave at Cordisburgo to the northwest, found by a landowner in 1825 and studied by Danish naturalist Peter Lund from 1834. Visitors pass through a chain of lit chambers, and the town, birthplace of writer Guimaraes Rosa, has a museum to him.