Two lines that cross

Brasilia gave concrete form to the modernist ideal for a city, uniting architecture and urban planning. The city was also a dream fed by the desire to show that we Brazilians could do something beyond our time, that a utopia could become a planned city.

Opened in April 1960, the city, however, was not completed. Indeed, even today it is an ongoing labor to turn its urban ideal into reality. Therefore, over the years, Brasilia has been marked by iconic buildings, which provide a new vision of the city and its historical dimension.

Until 2010, at 101 meters high, the headquarters of the Central Bank was the tallest building in the Federal District and is still the tallest in the city center.

Begun on August 11, 1975 and completed on May 20, 1981, the construction used processes that were revolutionary for Brazilian engineering at the time.

In December 1964, Law 4595 created the Central Bank of Brazil. Its departments were located in different buildings in Rio de Janeiro and at the time, the intention was to retain it in that city. However, the enactment of the 1967 Constitution changed the course of history, as it determined “the final transfer, to the Federal Capital, of those federal agencies that still remain in the State of Guanabara.”

The transfer of the Central Bank occurred in two stages: by July 1970, the Board of Directors and respective offices moved; by December 1970, the other sectors of the Central Bank, except for the Guanabara branch. The first meeting of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank, was held in Brasilia in September 1970.

The headquarters building was officially occupied in September 1981.
Prior to the construction, the Central Bank operated from 12 different locations in Brasilia. The institution's staff were scattered over six buildings located in the Southern Commercial Sector, two in the Northern Banking Sector and on two floors of the Banco do Brasil building, where the Bank's board of directors was seated.

The Central Bank had a long maturation process up to its creation. In 1808, when the Prince Regent of Portugal, Dom João, landed in colonial Brazil, the idea of creating a bank with central bank functions had already been proposed. In 1945, the government of President Getúlio Vargas created the Superintendency of Money and Credit (SUMOC), which set the stage for the creation of a central bank. On Brasilia’s inauguration day, SUMOC held, in the new capital, a minuted special session.

The Headquarters Building was designed by the architect Hélio Ferreira Pinto.

The building has six basements, counting from the base, and 21 projecting upper floors, which makes the architectural design plastic and innovative.

The shape of the building was inspired by a 20,000 real gold coin from the 18th century.

The Cross of the Order of Christ had become one of Portugal's national symbols and appeared on several coins throughout successive reigns.

The Brazilian Republic’s coins have also displayed the symbol.

The Order of Christ was the main financier of Portuguese maritime explorations, so the red and white cross adorned the sails of the ships at the time of the discoveries. Due to this historical heritage, today there are several Brazilian municipalities that have the image of the cross in their flag or coat of arms.

Brasilia was defined by Lucio Costa as a sign of the cross. In his original proposal, the architect and urban planner expressly states: "It was born from the primary gesture made by one who marks a place or takes possession of it: two axes crossing each other at right angles, that is, the very sign of the cross."

The Central Bank headquarters building, with its shape inspired by a cross and its four towers, is reminiscent of the design of Brasilia, whose city center was divided into four scales - monumental, residential, gregarious, and bucolic - cut by two intersecting axes. 

The city unites the symbolism of the cross and the bird, inaugurating a new era, as in the discoveries; the building unites the symbolism of the cross and the square, at the same time an incentive to courage and struggle for victory, as in the crusades, with an architectural framework of solidity, sobriety and stability.