Qualla: Mineirão

Mineirão: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit copagov, CC BY-SA 2.0. Brazilians call it the night the country cried. On 8 July 2014, in the semifinal of a World Cup Brazil was hosting on home soil, Germany scored seven goals. They scored the first in the eleventh minute. They scored the fifth in the twenty-ninth. The stadium - 58,000 people - went silent and then, at a certain point, began to applaud German passes out of stunned respect. The venue for that unprecedented collapse was Mineirao, Belo Horizonte's 66,658-seat false-ellipse concrete colossus, which Brazilians call the Pampulha Giant. It is the home of Cruzeiro Esporte Clube. It has also hosted Paul McCartney, Beyonce, Kiss, Pearl Jam, Metallica, and a gospel singer named Ana Paula Valadao whose concert in 2001 drew more than 210,000 people - the biggest audience ever recorded at the stadium. But for a large share of Brazilians, it will always be the stadium where that happened.

Read more: Mineirão on Qualla

Image: copagov | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mineirão: A Stadium Built in Eight Months

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0. The law creating it was signed in 1959, but serious construction did not really begin until 1963. When it did, it moved at a pace that engineers still describe with disbelief. Cesar Gil, the construction manager, ran three shifts of three thousand workers each - around the clock,...

Read more: Mineirão on Qualla

Image: Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mineirão: The False Ellipse

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cid Costa Neto, CC BY-SA 3.0. The mathematical shape is what engineers kept talking about. A false ellipse, with a major axis of 275 meters and a minor axis of 217 meters, built with conventional equipment in a country whose steel industry had never handled a project of that scale. Eduardo Mendes Guimaraes Ju...

Read more: Mineirão on Qualla

Image: Cid Costa Neto | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mineirão: The 132,834

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, CC BY 2.0. The record attendance was set on an afternoon in 1997. Cruzeiro played Villa Nova in the Campeonato Mineiro final. The paying attendance was 74,857. The remaining 56,618 spectators were women and children who entered for free - and one of the largest crowds ever assembled for a f...

Read more: Mineirão on Qualla

Image: Leandro Neumann Ciuffo | CC BY 2.0

Mineirão: The Seven

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lunna Campos, CC BY 2.0. On 8 July 2014, Germany met Brazil in the World Cup semifinal at Mineirao. Thomas Muller scored in the eleventh minute. Then Miroslav Klose, in the twenty-third, scored his sixteenth career World Cup goal - breaking Ronaldo's all-time record. Toni Kroos scored in the twenty-fourt...

Read more: Mineirão on Qualla

Image: Lunna Campos | CC BY 2.0

Mineirão: The Venue That Plays Everything

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jani Pereira, CC BY-SA 4.0. Football is not all Mineirao does. The stadium has hosted music since it opened. Kiss played here on the Creatures of the Night tour in 1983. Menudo came in 1985. Paul McCartney chose Mineirao to kick off his Out There tour in May 2013 - the first show of a world tour, played in ...

Read more: Mineirão on Qualla

Image: Jani Pereira | CC BY-SA 4.0