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Juscelino Kubitschek was born and spent the first seventeen years of his life in Diamantina. His enduring monument is the capital city he built on the Planalto Central, Brasília, which fired Brazil's and the world's imagination and which now houses his remains (he was killed in a road accident in 1976). The house he was born and lived in, Casa de Juscelino, is preserved as a shrine to his memory (Tues-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 9am-1pm), on the steep Rua São Francisco, uphill from his statue at the bottom.

Juscelino had a meteoric political career. His energy, imagination and uncompromising liberal instincts make him one of the great postwar presidents. You can understand his lifelong concern with the poor from the small, unpretentious house where he spent the first part of his life in poverty. Restoration has rather flattered it, as the photos of how it was when he lived there make plain - no Brazilian president has yet come from a humbler background. He was of the second generation of poor Czech immigrants: you won't find many family possessions because they didn't have any. The photos and the simplicity of the house are very moving, a refreshing contrast to the pampered corruption of many of his successors.

If you're interested, the Casa da Cultura in Praça Antônio Eulálio has a folder of photographs and clippings about Juscelino, relaxing with his seresta group - he was an accomplished guitarist - and being feted by the proud inhabitants of the town he clearly never left in spirit. Most of the bars still display his photograph, many dating from before he became president in 1956. And many still don't believe his death was a genuine accident, just as few mineiros believe Tancredo really died of natural causes. The massive turnout for Juscelino's funeral in Brasília in 1976 was one of the first times Brazilians dared to show their detestation of the military regime.