10 Inspiring Modern Churches
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The Brazilian master of curved concrete made his mark with the Pampulha Architectural Ensemble, a 1940s garden city project in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais. The complex, which was one of Niemeyer’s first, included the radical Church of St. Francis of Assisi. This modernist touchstone with a parabolic roof and polychromatic tiles was such a departure from existing forms that one politician suggested demolishing it. In 2016, the cathedral was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.