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Cuiabá is the capital of Mato Grosso in west-central Brazil, a hot riverside city famous as the geodesic centre of South America and as the gateway to the Pantanal wetlands and the cliffs of Chapada dos Guimarães. It was founded in 1719 by the bandeirante Pascoal Moreira Cabral, and in 1722 gold was found along the Prainha stream.
The gold rush was short, but it shaped the historic centre, a protected district of colonial streets around the cathedral and the Rosário e São Benedito church of about 1730. Nearby stand the Palácio da Instrução of 1914, the obelisk that marks the continent's geodesic centre and the old fish market on the riverbank, now the Museu do Rio.
The city is also a green one, with the cerrado trails of Parque Mãe Bonifácia, the fountains of Parque das Águas and the Arena Pantanal that hosted World Cup matches in 2014. Within a day's drive lie the waterfalls and sandstone formations of Chapada dos Guimarães National Park and the Transpantaneira road into the Pantanal, famous for its jaguars, caimans and birds.
The Catedral Basílica do Senhor Bom Jesus is the cathedral of Cuiabá, on Praça da República in the historic centre. The old colonial cathedral was demolished in 1968, and the present reinforced-concrete church with twin towers opened on 24 May 1973, keeping 18th-century images of the patron saint.
The Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário e São Benedito in Cuiabá was built of rammed earth around 1730, in the gold-rush years. Its altars are carved in baroque and rococo style with gilded and silvered woodwork, it was listed by IPHAN in 1975, and it hosts the Festa de São Benedito.
The Historic Centre of Cuiabá, listed by the national heritage institute IPHAN in 1993, covers about 13 hectares with some 400 old buildings. Its lanes grew up after gold was found on the Prainha stream in 1722, and colonial houses, squares and churches still line them today.
The Santuário Nossa Senhora do Bom Despacho is a neo-Gothic church on the Morro do Seminário in Cuiabá, beside the old Seminário da Conceição. The present building dates from 1918, and after years of closure it reopened in 2004, its pointed arches and spires rising above the city centre.
The Palácio da Instrução on Praça da República in Cuiabá opened on 15 August 1914 on the site of a ruined barracks. Built as a school with 27 classrooms around two inner courtyards and a grand hall, it is the largest neoclassical building in the city and later housed the state library.
The Museu do Rio in Cuiabá occupies the old Mercado do Peixe, a riverside fish market built in 1899 in the historic Porto district. Restored by the city from 1996 and now a listed building, it tells the history of Cuiabá through old photographs, crafts, sacred art and scale models.
The Museu Histórico de Mato Grosso occupies the Thesouro do Estado, a neoclassical treasury building of 1896 on Praça da República in Cuiabá. Housed there since 2006, it covers the state's history from the bandeirantes to the military dictatorship, with several rooms on the Paraguayan War.
The Museu de História Natural de Mato Grosso in Cuiabá is housed in the Casa Dom Aquino, an adobe colonial mansion built in 1842. Founded in 2006, it holds more than 75,000 items, including fossils of giant ground sloths and giant armadillos, archaeological finds and Indigenous artefacts.
The Geodesic Center of South America in Cuiabá marks the point that Marshal Cândido Rondon calculated in 1909 as the centre of the continent. An obelisk put up in the 1970s stands on the spot in central Cuiabá, beside the Câmara Municipal, the building of the city council.
Parque Mãe Bonifácia is a 77-hectare state park in Cuiabá, opened in December 2000 to protect a patch of native cerrado woodland. It has five walking trails, a viewpoint and outdoor fitness stations, and marmosets and agoutis are among the animals that live in the park.
Parque das Águas is a city park in the Centro Político Administrativo district of Cuiabá, opened on 30 December 2016. It has 1,500 metres of running track, 1,600 metres of cycle path, open-air gyms and playgrounds, and its Show das Águas fountain lights up the evenings.
The Arena Pantanal is the main stadium of Cuiabá, built for the 2014 FIFA World Cup on the site of the old Verdão stadium. It hosted four World Cup matches and five games of the 2021 Copa América, seats 42,968 fans, and Cuiabá Esporte Clube usually plays its home games there.
Chapada dos Guimarães National Park, a popular day trip from Cuiabá, was created in 1989 and protects about 33,000 hectares of cerrado, canyons and caves. Its red sandstone cliffs drop from the plateau to the lowlands, waterfalls pour over the edge, and red-and-green macaws nest in the cliffs.
The Véu de Noiva Waterfall is the best-known sight of Chapada dos Guimarães National Park near Cuiabá, about 12 kilometres from the town of Chapada dos Guimarães. A slender stream plunges from a red sandstone cliff into a forested gorge, seen from a viewpoint by the park's visitor centre.
Cidade de Pedra, the Stone City, is a geosite of Chapada dos Guimarães National Park, a day trip from Cuiabá, where wind and rain have carved the red sandstone into towers and walls. From the edge of the plateau, its viewpoints look out over the cliffs and the forest far below.
The Transpantaneira is the MT-060 road into the Pantanal, running 147 kilometres from Poconé, about 100 kilometres from Cuiabá, to Porto Jofre. Crossing 122 wooden bridges over rivers and wetlands, it is famous for wildlife watching, especially in the dry season when animals gather by the water.
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