March 2010 Archives

Icon would be the word to best describe Christ the Redeemer Statue. Only the Eiffel tower comes to mind as another man made monument that symbolically represents a city to this degree but the famous monument atop a mountain above Rio, of Jesus Christ with his arms outstretched, has come to represent an entire nation and instantly associated, by a majority of the population living on earth, to symbolize Rio de Janeiro. The city named after a river, named after a month of the year (ie. Janeiro = January) has an icon to represent her to humanity, it's Christ the Redeemer Statue.

Christ the Redeemer statue stands 39.6 metres (130 ft) tall, including its 9.5 metre (31 ft) pedestal, and 30 metres (98 ft) wide. It weighs 635 tons, and is located at the peak of the 700 metres (2,300 ft) Corcovado mountain (Corcovado meaning "hunchback" in Portuguese) in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro. It is one of the tallest statues of its kind in the world. The statue of Cristo la Concordia in Cochabamba, Bolivia, is slightly taller, standing at 40.44 metres (132.7 ft) tall with its 6.24 metres (20.5 ft) pedestal and 34.20 metres (112.2 ft) wide. A symbol of Catholicism, the statue has become an icon of Rio and Brazil. It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone atop the peak of Corcovado, a big granite dome claimed to be the highest such formation in Brazil

"Champions are made of something they have deep inside of them.
A desire, a dream, a vision.
They must have last minute stamina.
They have to be fast.
They must have the skill and the will.
But the will must be stronger than the skill.
Ayrton Senna

Aryton Senna was the greatest brazilian driver of all time was born in Sao Paulo on March 21, 1960.

Today he would complete 50 years and certainly still participate actively in racing either on your own team or even running on events like the 24 Hours of LeMans. Senna was three times world champion of Formula 1 in the years 1988, 1990 and 1991 and also twice runner-up in 1989 (a championship very controversial given to his punishment at the final race) and 1993 (third year of Schumacher in the category)

Roberto Burle Marx is internationally known as one of the most important landscape architects of the 20th century. An artist of multiple facets, besides being a landscape designer he was also a remarkable painter, sculptor, singer, and jewelry designer, with a sensibility that is shown throughout his work. Born in São Paulo in August 4th, 1909, Roberto Burle Marx moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1913. During the years of 1928 and 1929 he studied painting in Berlin - Germany, where he was often seen at the Dahlem Botanic Garden's greenhouses. In this garden he noticed for the first time the beauty of the tropical plants and the Brazilian flora.

His first landscape project was a private garden for a house designed by the Architects Lucio Costa and Gregory Warchavchik in 1932. Since then, his landscape works improved as well as his painting and drawing.

In 1949, he bought a 365,000m2 estate in Barra de Guaratiba, in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, where he started to organize his big collection of plants.