National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage

Iphan is the federal organ that serves as a base for the constitution of state and municipal organs for the protection of cultural patrimony. It was created by the Decree nº 25, on the 30th of November of 1937, and elaborated by Mário de Andrade at the request of Gustavo Capanema, minister of then-President Getúlio Vargas. Together, the historic monuments recorded via these three instances – federal, state and municipal – preserve a sample of the significant cultural productions of Brazil, since its origin until today. The recordings of the historic monuments of the entire country are very extense. Many of them are conjuncts or urban centers, like Ouro Preto (the whole city) and the Historic Center of Salvador, among others. The largest repositories of historic monuments recorded by IPHAN are in Pernambuco, the principal economic center of the first sugar cane cycle of colonial Brazil. These centers exist in the states of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, the two seats of the Portuguese Court, and in Minas Gerias, the principal mining region of the country. Among the historic monuments recorded, ten are considered by UNESCO to be World Heritage Sites: Olinda, in Pernambuco; the Historic Center of Salvador, in Bahia; Ouro Preto, the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos, in Congonhas do Campo, and the city of Diamantina, all of them in Minas Gerais; Missões, in Rio Grande do Sul; São Luís, in Maranhão; Brasília, capital of the country; and the ecological patrimonies of the Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara, in Piauí, and the Parque Nacional do Iguaçu, in Paraná. The nomination by Unesco, such as that of the Missões of the Parque Nacional do Iguaçu, is multinacional, with parts situated in Argentina and in Paraguay.