Federal District (Brazil)

Federal District Distrito Federal
Federal district
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Ventvris Ventis
Location of Federal District in Brazil
Coordinates:
Country	Brazil
Seat of government	Brasília
Government
• Governor	Rodrigo Rollemberg (PSB)
Area
• Total	5,802 km2 (2,240 sq mi)
Area rank	27th
Population (2014)
• Total	2,852,372
• Rank	20th
• Density	490/km2 (1,300/sq mi)
• Density rank	1st
Demonym(s)	Brasiliense
GDP
• Year	2006 estimate
• Total	R$ 189,800,000,000 (8th)
• Per capita	R$ 45,600 (1st)
HDI
• Year	2010
• Category	0.824 – very high (1st)
Time zone	BRT (UTC−03:00)
• Summer (DST)	BRST (UTC−02:00)
Postal code	70000-000 to 73690-000
ISO 3166 code	BR-DF
Website	df.gov.br

The Federal District (Portuguese: Distrito Federal; Portuguese pronunciation: [dʒiʃˈtɾitu fedeˈɾaw]) is one of 27 federative units of Brazil. Located in the Central Plateau of the Brazilian Highlands, the Federal District is divided into 31 administrative regions, and contains the Brazilian capital city, Brasília, which is also the seat of government of the Federal District. The capital — the seat of the three branches of the federal government of Brazil (legislative, executive and the judiciary) — is the main attraction of this dry area, whose climate has only two seasons. During the dry season (winter), the humidity can reach critical levels, mainly in the peak hours of the hottest days. The artificial Paranoá Lake, with almost 40 km² (15 sq mi) and 500 million cubic metres (410,000 acre·ft) of water, was built to minimize the severe dry, climatic conditions of winter in the Cerrado vegetation.

History

The capital of Brazil was transferred from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília on April 21, 1960, which its new territory was then split off from Goiás. After the transfer, the old Federal District (1891-1960) became the Guanabara State (Estado da Guanabara), which existed from 1960 until 1975 when Guanabara State and Rio de Janeiro State (Estado do Rio de Janeiro) merged and assumed the name Rio de Janeiro State, having as capital the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Demographics

According to the IBGE of 2007, there were 2,393,000 people residing in the Federal District. The population density was 410.9 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,064/sq mi).

• Urbanization: 94% (2006).
• Population growth: 2.8% (1991–2000).
• Houses: 697,000 (2006).

Subdivisions

See also: List of administrative regions in Federal District

Geography

In area, the Federal District is more than double the size of Tokyo (Japan) or the island of Maui (Hawaii, USA). It is slightly larger than French Polynesia, the US State of Rhode Island, or Cape Verde. It is slightly smaller than Bali (Indonesia) or Trinidad and Tobago.

Tourism and recreation

The "Parque da Cidade" ("City Park") in Brasília

Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brasília

The Parque da Cidade

Located in Brasília, the "Parque da Cidade" ("City Park"), which is named after the wife of Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek, extends over four million square meters. It includes landscape works of Burle Marx, and wall tiles that decorate restrooms in the park designed by Athos Bulcão. Equipped with sports courts, a horse track, a racing kart track, skate tracks, playgrounds for children, bicycle tracks and trails for walks and jogging, the City Park attracts hundreds of people everyday, specially on weekends. The park's main entrance is located in the Monumental Axis South, but there are secondary exits that lead to other areas in the city's south wing.

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasilia

Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, it was inaugurated in 1970. Its shape is circular horizontally and structured around 16 curved pillars, forming a crown filled with futuristic and/or spatial stained-glass works in a triangular shape. The pillars evoke reversed praying hands that deconstruct the gothic traditional church window pattern, but conserves the triangular vaginal shape of the stained-glasses. The curves present in many of Niemeyer's works pay homage to the beautifully built bodies of Brazilian women.

The stained-glasses were designed by Marianne Peretti. Their disposition ensures natural lighting into the aisle, which was built below street level. Around the church, in the outside area, visitors can see Alfredo Ceschiatti's sculptures — the four evangelists — and inside, suspended angels. There are also paintings by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, representing the stages of the Passion of Christ, and paintings by Athos Bulcão. The Cathedral is located in the Eixo Monumental mall, at the entry to the Esplanada dos Ministerios, or Ministries Sector.

The "Three Powers Square"

Praça dos Três Poderes concentrates some of the most important and significant buildings in the work and career of Oscar Niemeyer — the Planalto Palace, headquarters of Brazilian Presidency; the National Congress, hosting the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate; and the Higher Courts of Justice. The Square also hosts: the Panteão da Pátria (Pantheon of the Fatherland), the Lúcio Costa Space and three important sculptures — "Pombal", by Niemeyer; "Justice", by Alfredo Ceschiatti; and "Os Candangos", by Bruno Giorgi. In the central plaza, a giant Brazilian national flag 286 square meters (3,080 sq ft) is supported by a triangular black 100-meter (330 ft) and high pole. It is located at the end of the Esplanada dos Ministerios.

Infrastructure

Esplanade of the Ministries and Central Bus Station in Brasília

• Vehicles: 910,502 (March/2007)
• Mobile phones: 2.7 million (April/2007)
• Telephones: 884 thousand (April/2007)
• Cities: 31

Economy

The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 92.5%, followed by the industrial sector at 7.1%. Agriculture represents 0.4% of GDP (2004). Federal District exports: soybean 77.1% and gold 16.4% (2002). The Federal District's share of the Brazilian economy is 3.7% as of 2005.

Education

National Museum of Brasília

Educational institutions

• Universidade de Brasília (UnB) (University of Brasília)
• Universidade Católica de Brasília (UCB) (Catholic University of Brasília)
• Centro Universitário de Brasília (UniCEUB)
• Centro Universitário do Distrito Federal (UniDF)
• Centro Universitário Euroamericano (UNIEURO)
• Instituto de Educação Superior de Brasília (IESB)
• União Pioneira da Integração Social (UPIS)
• Universidade Paulista (UniP) (Paulista University)

Infrastructure

International Airport

Brasília International Airport is the third largest in Brazil in terms of passenger movement. Because of its strategic location it is considered a civil aviation hub for the rest of the country. This makes for a large number of takeoffs and landings and it is not unusual for flights to have to wait in the holding pattern to land. Following the airport's master plan, Infraero built a second runway in 2005. In 2003, the fourth phase of the passenger terminal expansion was completed. It raised its capacity to 7.4 million passengers a year. The third floor of the main building, with 12 thousand square meters, has a panoramic deck, a food court, shops, four movie theaters with total capacity of 500 people, and space for exhibitions. There are a total of 136 shop spots at the Brasília Airport.

Subway

There is an urban rail system, the Brasília Metro, serving Distrito Federal. It is operated by Metrô-DF (Companhia do Metropolitano do Distrito Federal) and was inaugurated in 2001. The system has 29 stations (24 in operation) on two lines, and operates from 06:00 to 23:30, Monday to Friday and from 07:00 to 19:00 on weekends. It covers most of the metropolitan area. Its main problem is the sheer distance between stations, making it a small component in the Federal District transit system, where a dysfunctional bus network is still predominant. Águas Claras is well-served by the subway, making it one of the fastest-growing areas in the Federal District.

Trains	32
Total Extension	42.38 km (26.33 miles)
Operational Stations	24
Total Stations	29

The nonoperational stations may include service stations and stations under construction.

Sports

Free Flying

Brasília is known as a departing point for the practice of free flying sports, a sport that may be practiced with Hang Gliding or Paragliding wings. Practitioners of such sports reveal that, because of the city's dry weather, the city offers strong thermal winds and great "cloud-streets" – which is also the name for a manoeuvre quite appreciated by practitioners. The national capital hosted the 14th Hang Gliding World Championship – one of the categories of free flying – in 2003. In August 2005, it hosted the 2nd stage of the Brazilian Hang Gliding Championship.

Brasília is one of the 12 cities to host games of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, to take place in the country.

Flag

The flag of the Federal District

The white background of the flag stands for peace, and gives the idea of infinity, or the vast Brazilian territory. The green and yellow colours in the middle refer to the most commonly used of the four colours of the national flag to represent Brazil. The four yellow arrows symbolize the native nations of Brazil, whereas their pointing into the four cardinal directions of the compass stands for the centralized emanating political power of Brasilia, as the capital of the country. The yellow arrows also form a cross, which symbolizes both the Southern Cross, a constellation seen only in the Southern Hemisphere and the Roman Catholic or Christian symbol of redemption brought by Pedro Álvares Cabral and under whose shadow the first Mass in Brazil was celebrated in 1500 in Bahia. With their feathers, the arrows form a lozange in the middle, a reference to yellow lozange of the national flag, that stands for Brazil's mineral riches.

The flag was created by the poet and herald Guilherme de Almeida, and was adopted by decree n.o 1090 on August 25, 1969.

Voting rights

Residents of the Federal District elect eight representatives to the Chamber of Deputies and three senators.

External links

• (Portuguese) Page of the Government of the Federal District
• (Portuguese) Page of the Legislative Chamber of the Federal District