He had an audacious plan: "fifty years of prosperity in five." The man with the plan was Juscelino Kubitschek, President of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. Part of his plan for the prosperity of Brazil was the construction of a new capital city called Brasilia.
This colossal monument to modernist architecture was planned and developed by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer. And the architect for the massive amount of landscaping was Roberto Burle Marx. Amazingly, the city was built in just 41 months, between 1956 and 1960. The official opening was on 21 April 1960. The city's radical yet simple design divided it into numbered blocks. The city was also divided into sectors for specified activities, such as the Hotel Sector, the Banking Sector and the Embassy Sector. In fact, the city of Brasilia was later chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
***
The city of Brazilia and President Kubitschek were both featured on a 100,000 Cruzeiros, banknote. It is important to note that this denomination was in "old" currency. Czeslaw Slania was chosen to engrave both sides (I believe) of the banknote.
A year after this note was issued, Brazilian currency had an overhaul. The basic unit of currency was now the Cruzado. 1 Cruzado now equaled 1,000 of the old Cruzeiros. Consequently, new currency was printed to reflect this change. The Brazilian authorities opted to retain the Slania engraved banknote, seen above, with the denomination altered. Below is the banknote with Cruzados. Incidentally, this currency only lasted until 1989.
Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment