Amaury Village

One of the builder´s villages in the city of Brasilia, the ‘Candangos’, that came from all over the country, Amaury Village was on the banks of the Paranoá river and was submerged when the lake filled. There, they lived the workers responsible for building the National Congress Palace. The village was a dormitory city that housed around 16 thousand people.

There was a long street where the workers were in their spare time on Sundays to rest from the long hours of work that went on in the night. Along the street was a shop, with it bars always frequented by Candangos in search of tastes and beer, packed with music “on demand”.

All were warned by the engineers that the village was temporary. That the village will be flooded, once the Paranoá Lake was filled.  The damn, been ready, the water would arrive. When the lake reached its 1000 quota, the water extended its open arms towards the city, thus marking the end of Amaury Vila, which has been named after its community leader, Amaury Almeida. On September 12, the day of his birthday, president JK triggers the gear that opened the iron gate of the damn and so the lake begins to form. The water went up and the houses were submerged. The candangos resisted leaving; they did not believe that the lake would end the village.