Centro Cultural Internacional Oscar Niemeyer

The history of the Project

In 1989, the now one hundred year old Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, was awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts Award. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Awards in 2006, the Prince of Asturias Foundation (FPA) invited all the award winners to participate in the celebrations.

"I am an architect and, as such, what I do is design buildings and that is just what I am going to do; design a building." And so, on a blank piece of paper, Oscar Niemeyer began sketching curves, a skill in which he excels. With this, Niemeyer offered one of the best possible gifts ever.

Those first sketches, drawn with a thick black marker, formed the foundations of an ambitious cultural project which will be housed in what Niemeyer himself has called his most important project in Europe and his only project in Spain.