Architectural Gems - the Cathedral

When we arrived a few months ago, not having friends yet but search of some kind of entertainment, I took the kids to the monuments of Brasilia. If I had some success at times, other times I had to drag them in. Mom is an architect, so she was not going to wait to do the architectural pilgrimage of the capital of modernism. And it was keeping us occupied. Now that we have visitors, we do the rounds once more.
I am going to help you visit my favorites. First the Cathedral.
It is Brasilia icon, the image of its structure is often used against the name of the city or various businesses in various forms. Built in 1970, Niemeyer sketched these 16 concrete ribs elements and toped them with a cross. This is the cross that was first used during the first service held in the fields that later became Brasilia, when the city was first being laid out. Beside the Cathedral stand four tall bronze statues representing the evangelists, by sculptor Dante Croce, alongside a set of bells, set in their own steeple.  A strange low oval shape lies beside the cathedral, and hides the baptistery.
These curved concrete pillars arise from a reflective pool (a recurrent element in Niemeyer's work, similarly found around the National Museum for example). Visitors enter via a dark tunnel that takes them below ground and under the pool, to the main sanctuary, filled with light and surrounded by stained glass work by the artist Marianne Peretti (installed only in 1990). Suspended above the space are three bronze angels by Alfredo Cheschiatti.
My first impressions, even before entering, were related to the scale of the structure, much simpler and smaller than its iconic status might lead us to imagine. Niemeyer's critics chastised him for allowing too much light in such hot climate, creating some kind of furnace, as if he wanted all the believers to burn in their faith. I rather discover a space that was cool and fresh, peaceful and subdued, light and discrete, the architecture being a support for art and light, something really subtle.
Of course, my inner architectural critic finds something to say about the detailing, specially in this access tunnel, to be lacking. Or in the outdoor landscaping that does not even deserve this name.
But in essence they do not take away the architectural significance of the work.