Elizabeth II celebrates the 70th anniversary of her reign this week. Queen of the United Kingdom, she is the longest-reigning living monarch in the world and the second longest-lived in all of history.
Over these seven decades, Elizabeth traveled the world in service of her crown. And Brazil was not left out of this one: the clock read 4:15 pm on November 1, 1968 when the Royal Air Force aircraft carrying the Queen Elizabeth II landed in Recife. Alongside Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who had landed 15 minutes earlier from Mexico, she made her first and only visit on national soil.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the royal trip represented a milestone in relations between Brazil and the United Kingdom, in which, in addition to the capital of Pernambuco, the Queen went through savior, Brasilia, São Paulo, Campinas and Rio de Janeiro. Between visits to tourist attractions, lunches and dinners with influential figures and tributes, the trip lasted 11 days.
And a curiosity: unlike all citizens and even other members of the royal family, the Queen does not have a passport. According official website statement of the British Royal Family, “as a British passport is issued in the name of Her Majesty, it is not necessary for the Queen to possess one”.
The following is a reminder of the itinerary in all the cities and tourist attractions that Queen Elizabeth II visited on her visit to Brazil:
Recife PE)
Queen Elizabeth II landed at Recife International Airport at 4:15 pm on November 1, 1968. Alongside Prince Philip, she headed in procession through the streets of the capital towards the Palace of Campo das Princesaswhich remains the seat of the Pernambuco government.
The neoclassical style palace dates from 1841 and is located in Praça da República, very close to the Santa Isabel Theater and the Palace of Justice.
On the date, a reception was set up to welcome the couple. Among the personalities present were Gilberto Freyre, one of the great scholars of Brazilian society, and Dom Hélder Câmara, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife. According to documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at 6:30 pm the same day, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh boarded the royal yacht Britannia bound for Salvador.
Salvador BA)
At 7:00 am on November 2, the royal yacht – which has been retired since 1997 – docked on the coast of Salvador, where the couple left in entourage around the city. On that occasion, the Queen and the Duke climbed the stairs of the Palace of Acclamation for a reception by Governor Luís Viana Filho.
Author Jorge Amado and Argentine-Brazilian artist Carybé were present on the occasion. Residence of the governors of Bahia for more than 50 years, the neoclassical Palace is next to the Passeio Público and has an interior with furniture in the Louis XV style, crystals, bronzes, porcelain, works of art and carpets. The balconies overlook the Bay of All Saints.
After the reception at the Palace, the royal couple went to downtown Salvador, where they met the historic Church of San Francisco, which displays all its baroque pomp; The Museum of Sacred Art, which has sculptures, furniture, silverware and paintings from centuries past, but is currently closed for maintenance; it’s the Model marketfrom 1912, which functioned as the main supply center in the city and today has craft shops, souvenirs and restaurants.
Brasilia DF)
Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived in the then recent federal capital on November 5, where they were received by Artur da Costa e Silva, the second president during the Military Dictatorship.
On her way through Brasília, the Queen stayed at the National Hotel, success in the 1960s and 1970s among the elite and influential personalities of the social and political world. Built next to the first buildings in the city and opened in 1961, it is currently closed after times of decay and accumulation of debts.
The royal couple debuted the ninth-floor presidential suite, and the occasion was even recorded on a plaque inside the hotel. In all, the Hotel Nacional has also hosted US presidents, such as Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and has 10 floors with 347 rooms.
Among the places visited by royalty are government devices, such as the Alvorada PalaceThe Federal Court of JusticeThe National Congress and a feast at Itamaraty Palace – all open for public visitation. Still in Brasília, the Queen met the iconic Metropolitan Cathedralwhere it was received by the Archbishop of Brasília, Dom José Newton de Almeida Batista, under the stained glass windows of the church designed by Oscar Niemeyer.
He also got to know the Urban Military Sector, where the army barracks are located, the TV Tower, with its 224 meters of height, and ended the program in the capital at the Embassy of the United Kingdom, on Avenida das Nações. The couple left Brasília for São Paulo aboard a Royal Air Force aircraft.
Sao Paulo and Campinas (SP)
On November 6, the Queen set foot in the capital of São Paulo, where she visited the Ipiranga Monument, landmark of Brazilian Independence in the Riacho do Ipirangaand also the Italia Building, in the center, one of the city’s postcards next to Copan.
At night, it was the turn of the Bandeirantes Palace to receive the royal couple, the official residence of the governor of São Paulo in the Morumbi neighborhood, which today is also open for visitors. At the time, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the welcome banquet was attended by artists Wilson Simonal, Jair Rodrigues and Elza Soares. The Palace was where Elizabeth and Philip stayed overnight.
The following morning, Queen Elizabeth II went to Avenida Paulista, where the new headquarters of the Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP). Before occupying a few floors of a building on Rua Sete de Abril, downtown, the museum started to occupy a larger space that would go down in history through the architecture of Lina Bo Bardi. Today the MASP is the largest and one of the most important institutions of plastic arts in Brazil.
In the afternoon, the couple went by plane to Campinas, in the interior of the state, where they met Agronomic Institute (IAC), an important research institute founded in 1887 by Emperor D. Pedro II. According to the regional newspaper Correio Popular, the Queen saw more than three thousand orchids, plants and tropical fruits, as well as drank soft drinks and received a bouquet of red roses at Fazenda Santa Elisa, owned by the IAC.
In the city, the Queen and Philip stayed overnight at Estância Santa Eudóxia, where, the other day, they went horseback riding – one of Elizabeth II’s passions – and also visited the Mount Post of the Jockey Club, whose palace in the center, made to be the the club’s urban headquarters, is a jewel in the city’s architecture.
Rio de Janeiro – RJ)
After disembarking at Santos Dumont Airport on November 8 in the afternoon, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh headed to the Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club, where they hosted a dinner for 50 guests aboard the yacht Britannia.
The Queen tried to get to know some of the most emblematic points of the “Marvelous City” in her brief visit to Rio, such as the Botafogo beachThe Viewpoint Dona Martait’s the Outeiro da Gloria, where the Church of Glory is located. Lunch was given at the Modern Art Museuma very important institution these days located in Parque do Flamengo, close to the historic center of Rio.
Part of her agenda as monarch, she symbolically marked the beginning of the construction of the Rio Niteroi bridge, today the longest bridge in the country. He also laid wreaths at the Monument to the Dead of World War II, in Glória, and watched a game between Cariocas and Paulistas at the legendary Maracana Stadium. With the victory of the Paulistas by 3 to 2, Elizabeth handed the cup into the hands of none other than Pele.
This was the last official engagement of Queen Elizabeth II in Brazil. On the morning of November 11, a Monday, she boarded at Galeão Airport for the Chile.
Source: CNN Brasil
