🇧🇷 Brazil · Southeast
Capitólio is one of the nature destinations in fashion in southern Minas Gerais, famous for its vertical-walled canyons plunging into the emerald-green water of Lake Furnas, an enormous reservoir nicknamed the 'Mar de Minas'. Boat trips between the canyons, stopping in front of waterfalls that drop straight into the lake, are its most iconic image and the experience that made its name.
Beyond the canyons, the region offers waterfalls, spectacular lookouts, crystal-clear pools and adventure activities such as zip lines, abseiling and stand-up paddle. The landscape of cerrado, lake and rock walls makes Capitólio a photogenic and very popular spot, especially with young, adventurous travelers, though it works for families too.
This guide covers the essentials of Capitólio: the boat trips through the Furnas canyons, the waterfalls and lookouts (such as the Cachoeira Lagoa Azul and the Mirante dos Canyons), the adventure activities, safety advice and how to get there. It is ideal for anyone who loves nature, adventure and spectacular landscapes of water and rock.
Capitólio is a small municipality in southern Minas whose present shape was set by the construction, in the middle of the 20th century, of the large Furnas hydroelectric dam on the Rio Grande. The reservoir, one of the biggest artificial lakes in Brazil, flooded valleys and created a landscape of canyons and green water that, decades later, would become the basis of a flourishing nature and adventure tourism industry that transformed the local economy. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The state of gold and the baroque: cradle of the Inconfidência and of Tiradentes, of historic towns such as Ouro Preto and Tiradentes, of pão de queijo and of an artistic heritage —that of Aleijadinho— without equal in Brazil.
Read the history of Minas Gerais →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Beneath the emerald-green water that makes Capitólio famous in every Instagram photo lies a whole town that no longer exists. Before the tourist boats cruised between stone canyons, that same territory was a dry valley where the Rio Grande ran free, lined with farms, chapels and dirt roads that now rest under forty meters of water. The story of Capitólio is not only the story of a spectacular landscape: it is the story of a deliberate flooding that erased one world to create another.
Capitólio is a small municipality in southern Minas Gerais, in a region of cerrado, hills and rivers that for a long time led a quiet, rural life tied to farming, ranching and the Rio Grande, one of the great watercourses crossing the state. Like so many towns in the Minas interior, its economy depended on the land and its population was modest.
The Rio Grande, on its run through southern Minas, cut through valleys hemmed in by rock formations. That relief, with its stone walls and its drops, would later be decisive for the spectacular landscape that characterizes the region today, though back then the river ran free along its natural bed, without the enormous body of water that would come later.
Life in the town and across the whole district would change radically in the middle of the 20th century, when the Rio Grande was chosen for one of the great energy infrastructure projects of a developing Brazil: the construction of a large hydroelectric plant that would completely transform the geography and the fate of Capitólio.
Construction of the Furnas hydroelectric dam, on the Rio Grande, began in July 1958, at the height of Brazil's industrial and energy expansion. The works went up on the stretch known as the 'Corredeiras das Furnas', between the municipalities of São José da Barra and São João Batista do Glória, and the state company Furnas Centrais Elétricas was created to run it. At the time it was the largest project under construction in Latin America. The first generating unit came online in September 1963 and the plant was officially inaugurated on 12 May 1965, with then-president Castelo Branco in attendance; the sixth unit entered service in July that same year.
The dam, around 127 meters high and 550 long, created an immense artificial lake of roughly 1,440 km², one of the largest reservoirs in Brazil, with a capacity that placed it among the great Latin American plants. For its size and its shape, cut into peninsulas and arms, the reservoir was nicknamed the 'Mar de Minas'. The water flooded the old river valleys and, covering the rock-walled relief, created the characteristic landscape of green-water canyons that defines Capitólio today.
That transformation had an enormous social and geographical impact. From the design stage, the project met opposition over the extent of the reservoir, which forced more than thirty-five thousand people to move and meant the loss of farmland and of entire towns that ended up underwater. What was at the time a great feat of engineering in the service of energy laid, without knowing it, the foundations of what would become Capitólio's main economic resource decades later: a spectacular landscape of lake and canyons.
For many years, Lake Furnas was above all a piece of energy infrastructure and a place for local fishing and recreation. But over time, and especially in recent decades, the extraordinary landscape of the canyons —with its rock walls dropping sheer into green water and its waterfalls plunging into the lake— was discovered by tourism, which found in Capitólio a spectacular, photogenic natural setting.
The boat trip between the canyons became the star activity and the destination's iconic image, going viral on social media and reproduced in countless photographs. To that were added the waterfalls, the lookouts with dizzying views and a wide range of adventure activities —zip lines, abseiling, stand-up paddle, kayaking— which drew above all a young, active crowd.
That tourism boom turned the economy of Capitólio, once a quiet rural town, into one of the most popular nature destinations in southern Minas. The rapid growth also raised challenges around safety and management —especially on the canyon trips, where the weather demands caution— and around sustainability. Today, Capitólio is a byword for canyons, green water and adventure, a destination born from the meeting of a great engineering project and the beauty of the Minas landscape.
Creating Lake Furnas did not only change the geography: it buried much of the region's memory. Under the green water lie old farms, chapels, roads, cemeteries and corners of towns that existed before the valleys of the Rio Grande were flooded. For many families in southern Minas, the reservoir represents at once the progress that electricity brought and the loss of their ancestors' land and landscapes.
Over time, the lake became part of the identity of Capitólio and the neighboring municipalities. Its shores filled with holiday houses, fishing lodges and small ports, and local life turned toward the water: fishing, boating and, later, tourism. The 'Mar de Minas' went from being an imposed project to a central element of the regional way of life and of regional pride.
That double face —a splendid landscape born of a profound transformation— is part of the history travelers pass through as they cruise the canyons. The water that today amazes people with its color and its vertical walls also covers an earlier world that stayed forever in the memory of those who lived in these valleys.
In recent years, Capitólio has established itself as one of the most popular nature destinations in Brazil, driven by its canyons going viral on social media. Visitor numbers grew fast, multiplying pousadas, agencies, boat operators and adventure activities, and completely transforming the economy of a town that was once quiet and rural.
That growth also brought challenges. On 8 January 2022, a large block of rock broke away from one of the canyon walls onto tourist boats on Lake Furnas, causing a tragedy with several fatalities that shook the country. The episode put the safety of the trips at the center of debate, along with the need to monitor the stability of the walls, watch the weather and regulate boating activity, especially in the rainy season.
Today, Capitólio is trying to balance its tourist success with visitor safety and the sustainability of its natural setting. Authorities and operators have tightened protocols, and the destination remains a byword for canyons, green water and adventure, a place born from the meeting of a great engineering project and the beauty of the Minas landscape, which asks to be enjoyed with respect and caution.