Rodrigues Campos Palace of Justice

The beautiful eclectic style building was erected between 1909 and 1911, on Afonso Pena Avenue, 1420, by Colonel Júlio C. Pinto Coelho, under the technical guidance of engineer José Dantas. The work began in the government of Wenceslau Braz and was inaugurated under the government of Bueno Brandão.

The Construction Commission of the New Capital had already commissioned and approved a project by architect José de Magalhães in 1895, but could not begin construction. The project carried out was that of Raphael Rebecchi, an architect engineer trained in Rome who had already worked for the state in the Minas Gerais Pavilion project and the 1908 National Exhibition at Praia Vermelha in Rio de Janeiro.

The building has a simple construction: a square with a projecting body in the front facade, the original metallic dome with a square plan, scaled tiles and profuse ornamentation. The central patio, which still retains the original tesselated floor, guides and distributes the internal circulation. From this patio, there is a staircase leading to the veranda with columns and iron railings, which surrounds the entire courtyard on the second floor. In the rear hall, we find the elevator imported from the United States, whose metallic box is decorated with geometric motifs in the Art Nouveau style. The grandiosity is also due to the high floor-to-ceiling heights on the two floors, which, added to the basement and the dome, reach 31 meters.

It has a majestic granite staircase which leads the visitor from the sidewalk to the columns that give support to the classic pediment of the main facade. These columns precede an atrium that leads to the iron gates that give access to the sumptuous lobby. When entering the lobby, the visitor is faced with a beautiful iron staircase imported from Belgium. At the start of this staircase, two classic style female statues hold torch-shaped fixtures. On the wall of the first floor is engraved the court’s motto: “Haec Domus odit amat punit conservat honorat nequitiam pacem crimina jura probos” that in a free translation from Latin to Portuguese, by professor Ricardo Arnaldo Malheiros Fiuza, reads: “this house hates iniquity, loves peace, punishes crime, maintains justice and honors probity.”

Among the several artists who left their contribution in this palace, stand out Frederick Steckel and his team –– plaster linings and cornices, varnishing floors and wall decoration; Peter Broniszenski – ornate carvings on the great front frieze and capitals of the columns; José Verdussem –– design of the great metallic dome which, unfortunately, was replaced before 1962 by another one of concrete, unsuitable for the style of the building; Piscini – drawing of artistic stained glass and João Morandi, Italian-Swiss sculptor – works in bas-relief on the facades.

The building underwent many decharacterizations over the years and was restored under the command of the architect Luciano Amedée Peret from 1958 to 1963. It was registered as part of the Cultural and Historical Heritage by the Iepha-MG in 1977, under the government of Antônio Aureliano Chaves de Mendonça. In the same act, the two luminaries of the noble ladder were also registered; the two statues representing “dawn” and “dusk,” carved by the Frenchman Math Moreau, in Val d’Osne; an oil portrait of the Baron of Rio Branco painted by Cesar Bacchi in Paris in 1912; an oil portrait of Dom Pedro II; two high back chairs, coming from the Santa Luzia Forum; choir stalls and an antique clock from the noble hall.

The building is also registered as part of the Cultural and Historical Heritage by the municipality of Belo Horizonte and is part of the registered urban ensemble of Afonso Pena Avenue. Today, it functions primarily as a representation and houses the Museum of the Judiciary Branch of Minas Gerais.