RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Via Liberdade tourist route was made official on April 26. The route totals 1,190 kilometers and passes through the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Goiás, and the Federal District, using the BR-040 highway as a reference.
The Via Liberdade goes through more than 300 cities, involving cultural manifestations of the states, such as gastronomy, music, dance, and art collections in museums and churches.
Via Liberdade starts in Rio de Janeiro, on Avenida Brasil, and incorporates seven world cultural heritage sites – the Cais do Valongo and the Sítio Burle Marx, in Rio de Janeiro; Ouro Preto (Serra do Espinhaço), Congonhas and Pampulha, in Minas Gerais; the Caminho de Goiás and Brasília -, in addition to Grande Sertão Veredas and the São Francisco River.
In music, the route goes through historical artists such as Chiquinha Gonzaga, Villa-Lobos, Clube da Esquina, country music, and the rock of Brasília.
According to the Minas Gerais government, the launch took the centennial of the 1922 Week of Modern Art as a reference.
The governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema, defended that the BR-040 would soon be known as Via Liberdade. “In São Paulo, we have the Via Anhanguera, Imigrantes, and why don’t we have in Minas Gerais the Via Aleijadinho, the Via Tiradentes, and the Via JK? I am sure that it will be better than numbers,” he defended.
The Secretary of Culture and Tourism of Minas Gerais, Leônidas de Oliveira, pointed out that the Via Liberdade “gives territoriality” to another route, the Via Real. He stressed the importance of the route to value the nation project represented in the country’s interior.
With information from Agência Brasil