Church of Saint Francis of Assisi
Oscar Niemeyer · Belo Horizonte, Brazil · 1943
The Pampulha church is an early breakthrough in Oscar Niemeyer’s use of reinforced concrete as expressive form. A sequence of parabolic vaults creates the nave and subsidiary spaces, while Cândido Portinari’s tile panels and Roberto Burle Marx’s landscape integrate art, architecture and site. Its unconventional silhouette initially provoked controversy but later became canonical. The building anticipated Niemeyer’s later experiments with thin concrete shells and remains one of the foundational works of Brazilian modernism.