"A hideous project for the future Tourist Information Center, to be located in front of the Palácio dos Despachos, a true 'modernist' terror." These harsh words from social columnist Anna Marina Siqueira in the Belo Horizonte newspaper Diário da Tarde in 1985 referred to the new building constructed on Praça da Liberdade, then the political epicenter of Minas Gerais. It was inaugurated as the Tancredo Neves Tourist Support Center and, for many years, housed the Professor Djalma Guimarães Mineralogy Museum. In April 2017, it reopened after a restoration, becoming the Visitor Information Center of the Circuito Liberdade and the Hub Minas Digital. While its location outside the Rio-São Paulo axis might make these official names unfamiliar to some, its popular moniker makes it instantly recognizable: it is known as the Rainha da Sucata (Queen of Scrap Metal), and has even been called the ugliest building in Brazil.
This playful nickname was coined by students from a nearby school during the run of Rede Globo's famous 1990 telenovela of the same name, inspired by the building's diverse components, which evoke discarded materials or junk. Their cleverness produced an accurate characterization, both due to the multiplicity of its metallic elements and because it has become a "cursed building" for Belo Horizonte and Brazilian architecture alike.
