Mineirão

Welcome to the Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto, universally known as the Mineirão. This is the fifth largest football stadium in Brazil and a true landmark of modernist architecture in the heart of Belo Horizonte. …

Your exploration of the Mineirão begins at the Museu Brasileiro do Futebol (MBF), located beneath the stadium's Esplanada. This is a scholarly repository of the rich sporting heritage of Minas Gerais and Brazil as a whole. …

Moving into the 'backstage' areas of the stadium, we enter the visitor's locker room. For the scholarly observer, this is a fascinating study in sports psychology. …

Next, we visit the Press Conference Room and the Mixed Zone, the areas where the narrative of the match is crafted for the outside world. The press room is surprisingly versatile; the wall behind the main podium is retractable,…

The climax of any stadium tour is the walk through the tunnel and out onto the pitch. As you emerge from the darkness of the interior corridors into the brilliant light of the arena, you experience the same 'privileged view' as…

Ascending to the stands, you can truly appreciate the architectural vision of the Mineirão. The stadium's capacity of 62,000 makes it one of the largest in Brazil, and its circular design ensures excellent visibility from every…

Finally, we return to the 'Esplanada,' the massive 80,000-square-meter plaza that encircles the stadium. This was a key part of the 2014 modernization project, turning the stadium from a single-use sports venue into a vibrant…

As we conclude our tour of the Mineirão, take one last look at its sweeping modernist facade. We have seen the stadium as a repository of history in its museum, a theater of intense sporting drama on its pitch, and a vibrant…