It is one of nine administrative regions of Belo Horizonte, and occupies 47.13 kilometres (29.29 mi) in the northeast of the city.

[1][2] Otacílio Negrão de Lima, mayor of Belo Horizonte in the early 20th century, dammed a small stream called Pampulha in 1936 for flood control and augment the city water supply through the creation of a reservoir.

The resulting Lake Pampulha became the site of an urban development project by Juscelino Kubitschek.

Kubitschek called on the young architect Oscar Niemeyer to create a series of buildings; Niemeyer was joined by the landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx and numerous artists to create site now considered the earliest and most important example of Modernism in Brazil.

The Santa Amélia section formerly housed the Escola Japonesa de Belo Horizonte (ベロ・オリゾンテ日本人学校) a.k.a.