Do you know? Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated Masp, in São Paulo

That was the only time the monarch came to the country

Did you know that the queen elizabeth II Have you ever visited Brazil? And it was not a visit in vain: in 1968, the then queen came accompanied by her husband, the prince Phillip, and inaugurated the building of the Masp, the Art Museum of São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, on Avenida Paulista. It was the only time the monarch came to the country.

Elizabeth II, who died at the age of 96 on the afternoon of this Thursday, 8, also went to Italy building, met the Ipiranga Monument and watched a show with Wilson Simonal, Jair Rodrigues and Elza Soares while he was in Brazil. In addition to the tour in São Paulo, she also visited the cities of Salvador, Brasília (DF), Recife, Campinas (SP) and Rio de Janeiro.

At the time, at the height of the Military Dictatorship, the monarch had lunch with the then mayor Faria Lima, as well as Evaristo and Leda Comolatti. The visit to Edifício Itália was marked on a plaque, which today is on the panoramic terrace on the 41st floor of the building.

Inauguration of Masp

Before 1968, when it settled on the traditional Avenida Paulista, Masp had another house. Founded in 1947 by journalist Assis Chateaubriand and the art critic Pietro Bardithe museum was located at the headquarters of the Journals and Associated Broadcasterslocated at Rua Sete de Abril, downtown São Paulo.

It was only in 1968 that the museum gained its new headquarters, an unprecedented architectural project created by the Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi. An interesting curiosity is that the Masp format came from the requirement to preserve the required view of the city center. So Bo Bardi designed the building to have an underground and an elevated block.

The result was a building suspended 8 meters from the floor, supported only on four beams, with a useful space and easy view of the rest of the city — the 74-meter free span of the Masp. At the time, it was considered the biggest in the world.

On November 8, 1968, Queen Elizabeth opened the museum alongside Bo Bardi and was responsible for the main speech.

Source: Exam