(Former State Secretariat for Finance)
The Minas Gerais Vale Memorial building is part of the civic center of the state administration of the founding of the new capital. It was registered by the state in 1977, as part of the Architectural and Landscape ensemble of Praça da Liberdade, and by the municipality of Belo Horizonte in 1994.
The building has a beautiful hall that is accessed from the level of the square by granite staircase. From this comes a wrought iron staircase that gives access to the upper floors. It is a work of art that was set up in an innovative system for the time, the joly, that allows the support of its own weight. This staircase is part of a lot, commissioned and purchased by the New Capital Construction Commission, which were designed in Belgium and manufactured in Germany by the companies Societé Anonime des Ateliers de Construction, Forges et Aciéries de Bruges and Eisenwerk Jolie.
The building, designed by the architect José de Magalhães, had its construction initiated in 1895, executed by the construction commission and was inaugurated in 1897. It has an eclectic style influenced by the Neoclassical. On the terrain of this building, was laid the foundation stone of the new capital.
The building has three floors and a basement, with an original area of 730 square meters. with the additions made throughout history, today the built area reaches 4,000 square meters. Internally, the decoration follows the Neoclassical style, with wall paintings and marble columns, granite floors, hydraulic tile, marble and wood, presenting beautiful drawings, made by the team of the German Frederick Antônio Steckel, which included the decorator and painter Luigi Cânfora.
It housed the State Secretariat for Finance until 2010. This year was transformed and inaugurated as a museum, already fully restored and expanded, with architectural design of the “architecture studio” and “architecture theater.” This work recovered the natural light of the original project, which now penetrates the building through the central void of the courtyard, revaluing the monumental staircase, the circulation between the exhibition halls, the walks and the new panoramic elevator. The patio’s internal facades, in weathering steel, and glass facades are softened by the patio’s bromeliad garden.
The restoration project of Flávio Grillo sought to bring to light the hidden art and highlight the modifications suffered over time, as well as contemporary interventions. The museographic conception is by Gringo Cardia (Waldimir Cardia Júnior), and in the total area of the equipment there are 31 spaces of exhibition and coexistence, which seek to agglutinate elements that constitute the identity of Minas Gerais.