Historic Buildings & Monuments

One of the few remaining relics of old São Paulo, the Pátio de Colégio complex sits a hop and a skip north from Praça da Sé on Rua Boa Vista, on the exact site where the original Jesuit mission was founded in 1554. Though built in 1896, the simple Anchieta Chapel (daily 8am-5pm) is an accurate reproduction of the original. Next door to the chapel, the newly renovated Museu Padre Anchieta (Tues-Sat 9am-5pm; R$5/US$2) features a number of maps of São Paulo through the years, plus a large diorama of the original settlement. Better yet, at the back of the complex there's the green and quiet Café do Páteo.

Just around the corner from the Pátio do Colégio at Rua Roberto Simonsen 136 is the Solar de Marquesa de Santos, the 18th-century manor house of an important Paulista noblewoman. The Solar is also home to the small City Museum (tel. 011/3241-4238), which contains a number of fascinating photographs of São Paulo before and after it spilled out all over everywhere. Admission is free and it's open Tuesday through Sunday 9am to 5pm.

The pretty mansion Casa das Rosas (Av. Paulista 37, Centro; tel. 011/251-5271) was built in 1928 by Ramos de Azevedo, the same architect who designed the Teatro Municipal and the Pinacoteca. The house, now a cultural center, plays host to small art exhibits, while the rose garden makes for the perfect escape from the Avenida Paulista. Admission is free (Mon-Fri 3-7pm when no exhibits are scheduled, and Tues-Sun noon-8pm during events and exhibits).

On the north side of downtown, the Estação de Luz looks exactly like a British high Victorian railway station: Romanesque red-brick arches and cast-iron pillars support a single vault that covers four tracks and platforms. The materials and design were imported wholesale from England in 1901. Even more elaborate is the nearby Estação Julio Prestes (Praça Julio Prestes s/n). Built in 1931, its tall sandstone and red-brick clock tower recalls an Italian campanile. The station was recently renovated and transformed into a concert hall. Call tel. 011/3337-5414 for programming details. (The police have been working hard to clean up the area around the Estação da Luz and the Julio Prestes cultural center. During the day it is perfectly safe, but at night it's better to take a taxi.)

The 30-story Edifíçio Martinelli, located at Av. São João 33, was the city's first skyscraper, inaugurated in 1929. Stylistically it's an interesting mixture -- Italian palazzo with a mansard roof -- and it remains an important landmark.

In 1965, the city's Italian community reasserted its ascendancy with the 42-story Edifíçio Itália, located on Av. Ipiranga 344 near Praça República. The Itália is rigorously modern -- severe as a monk, in fact -- but the 41st-floor restaurant, the Terraço Itália, is a great vantage point from which to view the city.

More daring and more interesting from an architectural perspective is Oscar Niemeyer's Copan Building, erected in 1951 at the corner of Avenida Ipiranga and Avenida Araújo. Its scale, its celebration of raw concrete, and its curvilinear shape were all quite advanced for the time. It remains a city landmark.