Brasilia

One dome sits upright and the other upside down, with twin towers between them. A guided round takes you to the gallery above each chamber.

Sixteen concrete ribs open outward like a crown with glass filling the gaps. Entry runs through a dark underground passage before the bright nave opens up.

The foreign ministry appears to float, its arches doubled in the surrounding water. With a booking the inner garden and its staircase can be seen.

A platform at 75m is open without charge and looks straight down the city axis. At weekends a craft market fills the ground beneath.

The building honours the president who built the capital and holds his remains. A statue raises its hand toward the direction the city was laid out in.

An artificial lake dug when the city was built, with paths around its edge. Humidity drops under twenty percent through the dry stretch, and the water helps.

Some 7400 pieces of blue glass fill the walls and turn the interior entirely blue. The colour deepens toward evening and washes out at midday.

Six storey blocks stand on columns with the ground floor left open. Each unit was planned to hold its own school and shops.

Twenty minutes from the centre a park holds pools of clear running water. It rises through a sand bed and stays cold all year.

Restaurants and a promenade are gathered on the southern shore. The sun goes down over the water, so the evening tables fill first.

Congress, the presidential offices and the Supreme Court frame one square. In the middle, the sculpture Os Candangos honours the city's builders. The square has no shade at all and its paving throws up heat at midday, so go morning or evening.

The presidential residence on the lakeshore, its columns curving like sails. You cannot go in, but the fence by the reflecting pool gives a front view. Being well outside the centre, it is easiest by taxi.

A wooden residence put up in 10 days on the construction site in 1956, where President Kubitschek stayed to oversee the work. Today it is a small museum with the period furniture. Woods hide it 20 minutes by car south of town.

A small pyramid chapel on a point above the lake, honouring Saint John Bosco, whose dream supposedly foretold the city. Its lake sunset is the most famous in Brasilia. The wide lawn around it fills with picnic blankets at dusk.

Niemeyer modelled this round building on an indigenous roundhouse, with a ramp coiling inside. It displays feather headdresses and baskets from many peoples. It faces the Presidential Memorial, so take in both.

Opened across Lake Paranoa in 2002, its three white arches skip over the water like a thrown stone. A footway beside the road lets you walk it. The arches lit at dusk show best from the lakeside deck.

The city's first church, roofed by Niemeyer in 1958 with a curve like a nun's wimple. Blue tiles by Athos Bulcao with doves and stars clad the outer walls. Tucked into a residential block, it is small and peaceful.

An interfaith temple, a seven-sided pyramid crowned with a large crystal. You walk a spiral drawn on the floor into the centre and back out. People of every belief walk in free.

A white hemispherical dome opened in 2006, with a ramp curling round the outside to an upper door. Beside it, the national library from the same year makes a pair. The cathedral is a few minutes away on foot.

An 18th-century gold-mining town about 2 hours' drive from Brasilia, with stone streets and low white houses. Waterfalls dot the surrounding forest, so a swim fits in. In May or June the Holy Spirit festival sends masked horsemen through town.