Qualla: Supreme Federal Court Palace

Supreme Federal Court Palace: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Yves Picq, CC BY-SA 4.0. The building barely seems to touch the ground. Oscar Niemeyer's design for the Supreme Federal Court Palace rests on a colonnade of thin, tapered side pillars, and the engineer Joaquim Cardozo worked out the structural mathematics that let the foundations lie almost on the surface - the same feat of load calculation he performed for the Cathedral of Brasilia and the other palaces of the capital. From below, the court seems to hover. Standing in front of it, at the center of the Praca dos Tres Poderes, Alfredo Ceschiatti's 1961 sculpture "A Justica" - a seated, blindfolded figure in dark granite - holds the sword that made the building's name.

Image: Yves Picq | CC BY-SA 4.0

Supreme Federal Court Palace: The Three Powers Plaza

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0. Niemeyer laid out the capital's political heart as a triangle of buildings, each facing the others across an open plaza. The National Congress to one side, the Palacio do Planalto presidential office to another, the Supreme Federal Court palace to the third. Three powers of the B...

Image: Cayambe | CC BY-SA 3.0

Supreme Federal Court Palace: How the Foundations Barely Touch

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Senado Federal, CC BY 2.0. Cardozo, the engineer, is less famous than Niemeyer but the partnership was essential. The visual effect that makes Niemeyer's buildings feel light - the floating white volumes, the improbably thin columns - required calculation. Cardozo was also a poet of some standing in the Br...

Image: Senado Federal | CC BY 2.0

Supreme Federal Court Palace: "A Justica" Without Eyes

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Senado Federal, CC BY 2.0. The statue in front of the palace does what statues of justice usually do - holds a sword, wears a blindfold, waits - but Ceschiatti's figure is quieter than its European prototypes. Seated, granite, robed. The 1961 sculpture presides over whatever is happening in the plaza: scho...

Image: Senado Federal | CC BY 2.0

Supreme Federal Court Palace: January 8, 2023

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Senado Federal, CC BY 2.0. Around 4,000 supporters of defeated President Jair Bolsonaro marched out of the Brazilian Army headquarters and across the Monumental Axis that afternoon, trying to provoke a military coup against the newly inaugurated Lula da Silva government. They broke police lines before 3 p....

Image: Senado Federal | CC BY 2.0