Qualla: Kubitschek Residence Museum

Kubitschek Residence Museum: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit copagov, CC BY-SA 2.0. Before Juscelino Kubitschek built Brasília, he built a house. It went up between 1940 and 1943 on the shore of Lake Pampulha in Belo Horizonte, a weekend retreat for a man who was then only prefect of the city - a local politician with a restless friendship with a young architect named Oscar Niemeyer. The roof folds down the center like a butterfly resting, two inclined planes meeting at a spine. Inside, the walls carry paintings by Alfredo Volpi and murals by Paulo Werneck. Outside, a garden by Roberto Burle Marx frames the entrance. The house is the quiet prelude to everything that came next - the governorship, the presidency, the new capital on the red dirt of the central plateau.

Image: copagov | CC BY-SA 2.0

Kubitschek Residence Museum: A Butterfly on Pampulha

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit josep from BHz, Brasil, CC BY-SA 2.0. The residence occupies 680 square meters on a lot of 2,800. Niemeyer placed the structure at the farthest edge of the plot from the street, a choice the Kubitschek family asked for and the architect delivered with characteristic intelligence. The butterfly roof, two planes pitche...

Image: josep from BHz, Brasil | CC BY-SA 2.0

Kubitschek Residence Museum: The Office by the Pool

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rcandre, CC BY-SA 4.0. Behind the main house, near the swimming pool, Niemeyer designed a smaller second structure. Three bedrooms, two living rooms, one bathroom - technically a guesthouse, but Kubitschek turned it into his office. It was one of his favorite places in the world. He worked there, took ...

Image: Rcandre | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kubitschek Residence Museum: The Family Who Stayed

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sudhertzen, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Kubitschek family lived in the house only until 1945, when Juscelino moved to Rio de Janeiro to take his seat as a federal deputy. The residence sat empty for eleven years. In 1956 - the same year Kubitschek was inaugurated as president of Brazil - his best man and lifelong f...

Image: Sudhertzen | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kubitschek Residence Museum: Fifty Years of Preservation

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernardo Gouvêa, CC BY-SA 3.0. Joubert Guerra died in 1977. His wife, Juracy Brasilience Guerra, remained in the house until her death in 2004. For sixty years, through a transition that could have scattered everything, the house and its contents had been looked after almost as a memorial. When Juracy died, th...

Image: Bernardo Gouvêa | CC BY-SA 3.0

Kubitschek Residence Museum: Joining the Modern Ensemble

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit will7, CC BY-SA 3.0. On September 10, 2013, the Kubitschek Residence Museum opened to visitors. It took its place in the Pampulha Modern Ensemble, Niemeyer's larger masterpiece around the lake - the curving Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, with Cândido Portinari's tilework; the Pampulha Museum of A...

Image: will7 | CC BY-SA 3.0