A Colônia Luxemburguesa

The São José Operário Church was designed by the Czech architect Yaro Burian in 1942 and inaugurated in the aftermath of the war in 1946. The church was entirely financed and managed by the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira and even the priests were hired by the company. It is the only V-shaped church in the world, symbolizing Via, Veritas, Vita (path, truth, and life).

The Margarida hospital was inaugurated in 1952 and named after Louis Ensch's mother Marguerite on the occasion of his 25th anniversary at Belgo Mineira.

In the 1950s, Emile Demuth and his family lived in this house built by the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira. Today, Ademar and Elise Soares Oliveira live in the well-preserved former Demuth house.

The Social Club was built in the 1940s by the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira as a gathering point where Luxembourgish engineers, foremen and their families would spend their freetime. Only Europeans and highly ranked Brazilian engineers were granted access to the Social Clube's facilities.

The football stadium Louis Ensch was inaugurated in 1952 and named after Louis Ensch on the occasion of his 25th anniversary at Belgo Mineira.

The Historical Cemetery of Monlevade, also known as the Cemetery of the Slaves, was entirely built by the Jean de Monlevade's slaves in the 19th century. There, the two European engineers Jean de Monlevade and Louis Ensch are buried next to each other. This private cemetery belongs to ArcelorMittal and is maintained by the company as a historical monument of its corporate history.

The Fazenda Solar was built around 1818 as the new residence of the French engineer Jean Antoine Félix Dissandes de Monlevade. Today, the Fazenda belongs to ArcelorMittal and is occasionally used for special receptions.

On 31 August 1935, the founding stone of Belgo Mineira's steel plant in João Monlevade was laid. The construction of this steel plant attracted thousands of workers and engineers from various different countries to João Monlevade seeking new job opportunities.

The Grupo Escolar was a primary school built and run by the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira in the 1940s. It is the only building from the Aires Quaresma square which has not been demolished during the expansion works of the steel plant. Today, the former school building is occupied by ArcelorMittal's RH department of the Monlevade plant.

The Cine Monlevade was built by the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira in the 1940s. It was located in the centre of the company's industrial town and attracted many residents with several international screenings. The Cinema was later demolished by the company for the expansion of the steel plant.

The Mercado do Geo was a local family run business lead by Senhor Leleo and located near the Casino. The residents of Monlevade would buy their groceries and house hold appliances at the Geo Market.

The Casino was built by the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira. Following the Luxembourgish Casino concept developed by ARBED, it was destined to accommodate recently arrived employees of the company and had a restaurant serving typical Luxembourgish dishes.

The [L]AÇO kiosk is a participatory multimedia platform built in the framework of Esch2022 – European Capital of Culture. The word play [L]AÇO (laço = ties ; aço = steel) literally means ties of steel. As integral part of this transmedia project, two [L]AÇO kiosks have been constructed – one in Minas Gerais and one in Luxembourg, to (re)create ties of steel and build a bridge between both mining regions.

The iron ore-rich region of Andrade is located near the Monlevade area. It was acquired by Gaston Barbanson in 1921 and destined to feed the blast furnaces of the planned steel plant in the Monlevade region.

The Companhia Açucareira Rio Doce was a sugar cane factory founded in 1948 by the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira in Governador Valadares. The Luxembourger Albert Heinen was the director of this sugar cane company, which produced up to 10.000 litres of Cachaça a day. It was shut down in 1978.

Sabará is a 300-year-old historical city in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the city attracted several gold diggers who exploited the region's gold mines with slave labour. In 1921, Sabará became the headquarters of ARBED's Brazilian subsidiary, the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira.

Vilar Formoso is a small Portuguese town and the main Portuguese-Spanish border-crossing. During World War II, thousands of Jewish refugees attempted to reach Lisbon and emigrate overseas via Vilar Formoso. In 2017, the Museum "Vilar Formoso - Frontier of Peace, Memorial of the Refugees and the Consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes" was inaugurated to remember the refugees who had been to Vilar Formoso hoping to cross the border.

The Confeitaria Kurt is a very famous deli in Rio de Janeiro's upper-class neighbourhood Leblon. It was founded in the 1940s by Kurt Deichmann, who fled to Brazil in 1938 to start a new life and left his family behind in Remich, Luxembourg. In 2013, Kurt Deichmann's daughter Marion Deichmann published a book telling her story entitled Je voudrais que son nom apparaisse partout: Une enfant au coeur du génocide.

The Minas Tênis Clube was built in 1935. It was a social and sports club exclusively visited by the prominent elite and high society of Belo Horizonte.

The Fazenda do Quilombo was Louis Ensch's farmhouse in Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais. There, Louis Ensch ran his business activities as a passionate ranch owner.

Belo Horizonte was founded in 1897 to replace the colonial city of Ouro Preto as the new capital of the State of Minas Gerais. Belo Horizonte is the country's first planned modern city.

João Monlevade is an industrial city in the State of Minas Gerais. It was built by the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira in the 1930s and named after the French engineer Jean de Monlevade, who had settled in the region in the early 19th century. On 29th April 1964, the village of João Monlevade was promoted into a Brazilian municipality and currently has an estimated population of about 80 000.

The Ensch house was on 30, rue de Reichlange, only a few steps away from the prestigious Bian residence in the small village of Redange-sur-Attert.

The Grand Hotel Brasseur was a famous hotel inaugurated in 1873 in the heart of Luxembourg-city. The historical building on Royal boulevard was demolished in 1969.

The Siderúrgica plant is Belgo Mineira's oldest steel plant. In 1921, ARBED expanded the small steel factory of the Companhia Siderúrgica Mineira founded in 1917. Belgo Mineira's headquarters was in Sabará and the historical directors' buildings of the steel plant are being preserved by ArcelorMittal.

O prédio do Cassino foi construído pela Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira em 1937, em Sabará. Seguindo o conceito do Cassino luxemburguês desenvolvido pela ARBED, destinava-se a acolher os recém-chegados colaboradores da empresa e tinha um restaurante que servia pratos típicos luxemburgueses. Hoje, o Cassino continua sendo propriedade particular da empresa e abriga o Centro de Memória ArcelorMittal.

The Bian residence, located at 36, rue de Reichlange was the most impressive house in the small village of Redange-sur-Attert.

The Fazenda Santo António da Moraria was bought by the Scharlé family in 1940 to become the family's permanent residence. After Albert Scharlé's death, the vast place was transformed into a recreational club, the Clube Albert Scharlé. The private church and family crypt, however, remain the family's property.

Belgo Mineira's former headquarters in Belo Horizonte, today ArcelorMittal.

Luxemburgo is an upper middle-class neighbourhood in Belo Horizonte. It used to be the property of the Luxembourgish engineer Albert Scharlé. His descendants transformed the inherited estate into a neighbourhood called Luxemburgo in memory of the family's Luxembourgish origins.

Honorary Consulate of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg in Belo Horizonte

Brasilia was founded in 1960 by the mineiro president Juscelino Kubitschek to become the new Brazilian capital. The planned city located in the central-western Brazilian highlands and was conceived by the Brazilian architects Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer.

Belgo Mineira's Trefilaria was inaugurated in 1958 in Contagem, Belo Horizonte.

The Church Nossa Senhora da Conceição was built in the early eighteenth century. Inside, its golden ornaments reflect the colonial past of the gold rush.

The city of Rio de Janeiro was founded in 1565 and was the capital of Brazil until 1960, when it was replaced by Brasilia. This iconic city in southeastern Brazil is also the capital of the State of Rio de Janeiro.

The Luxembourg Embassy in Brasilia was inaugurated on 1 March 2018. It is the first Luxembourg Embassy in South America.

The Cravo Vermelho Club was built in the late 1920s and destined to promote social activities of the European employees and their families. Leopold Bian was a founding member.

Several familiar Luxembourgish names can be found today on the grave stones of this public cemetery in Sabará.

Jean-Pierre Fohrmann was born in Dudelange, where he worked at ARBED's steel plant in Dudelange, Luxembourg. Fohrmann was transferred to Sabará to work at ARBED's Brazilian subsidiary in 1922. There, hen worked as a "chef-modelador" and opened his carpenter's shop. He produced furniture for several employees of the company.

The Casino building was built by the Companhia Siderúrgica Belgo Mineira in 1937 in Sabará. Following the Luxembourgish Casino concept developed by ARBED, it was destined to accommodate recently arrived employees of the company and had a restaurant serving typical Luxembourgish dishes. Today, the Casino remains the private property of the company and hosts the Centro de Memória ArcelorMittal.

The Memorial of Human Rights is a project initiated by the amnesty movement to transform the former D.O.P.S. and DOI-CODI of Belo Horizonte, institutions of political repression and torture during Brazil's military dictatorship, into a remembrance site destined to shed light upon all the atrocities which happened during that time. In spite of years of efforts, the Memorial project remains unfinished.

The city of São Paulo was founded in 1554 and is the most populous city in South America. It is also the capital of the State of São Paulo.

The Luxembourg-based steel conglomerate ARBED – Aciéries Réunies Burbach-Eich-Dudelange – was founded in Luxembourg in 1911 and played a key role in the country's industrial and economic development throughout the 20th century. The ARBED headquarters in Luxembourg city was built in 1922.

The [L]AÇO kiosk is a participatory multimedia platform built in the framework of Esch2022 – European Capital of Culture. The word play [L]AÇO (laço = ties ; aço = steel) literally means ties of steel. As integral part of this transmedia project, two [L]AÇO kiosks have been constructed – one in Minas Gerais and one in Luxembourg, to (re)create ties of steel and build a bridge between both mining regions.

Redange-sur-Attert is a small town in western Luxembourg.

Esch-sur-Alzette is situated in the industrial south called Bassin Minier and the second-most populous town in Luxembourg. The discovery of the Minette ore in the 1870s forever changed its urban landscape, provoking the development of the Luxembourgish steel industry, which attracted workers from all over Luxembourg and several countries to Esch. ARBED's former industrial site in Esch-Belval has been transformed into a university campus.

The Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg is a small country situated between Belgium, France and Germany. The former medieval fortress became an independant country in 1839 with the Treaty of London. Luxembourg has been occupied by its neighbouring countries and foreign-reigned several times throughout history. It is the world's last Grand Duchy functionning as a representative democracy with a constitutional monarch, Grand Duke Henri de Luxembourg.

Brazil is the largest country in Latin America and was colonised by the Portuguese Empire in 1500. The country is named after the pau-brasil, the brazilwood which was massively explored in the 16th century. In 1809, the Portuguese Crown fled to Brazil during the Napolean wars and proclaimed Rio de Janeiro as the capital of the Portuguese Empire. On 7 September 1822, the King's son, Dom Predro I, was declared first emperor of independent Brazil. Several millions of slaves, mostly from African countries, have worked in the gold mines and plantations for many centuries. Brazil is the last country in the Americas to have officially abolished slavery on 13 May 1888.

Bico de Lacre was a famous restaurant and deli in Belo Horizonte. It was founded by members of the Colônia Luxemburguesa, the Debortoli family which also managed the Casino in Sabará, the Kayser family which also managed the Casino in Monlevade, and the Leineweber family. Bico de Lacre was on 150, rua dos Carijós in Belo Horizonte.