Old São Paulo - Some of my pics

These are some pics I've taken in Downtown São Paulo and surroundings, published at Panoramio. I hope you like them!


The “Páteo do Collégio” (School Yard) Building is a replica (1953) of the old Jesuit School erected on the place where São Paulo was founded, in 1554, by the missionaries Manoel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta. It encompasses a part of an adobe wall of the original School, a Historical Museum (Museu Anchieta) and a Chapel.


Here we can see two of São Paulo's most important landmarks: (1) Right side: Páteo do Collégio (School Yard) Building. (2) Background: Altino Arantes Building (also known as BANESPA Tower), inaugurated in 1947. Tallest building in town until 1967, from its 161 meters high observatory it's possible to experience a 360 degrees view of up to 40 km of the impressive urban scenery of the city.


Padre Manoel da Nóbrega Square, an important historical area, close to the place where São Paulo was founded.


Although founded in 1554, still in the XVI Century, São Paulo has the features of a modern metropolis, with a few remains of its origins. This pic shows Roberto Simonsen Street, part of the “old São Paulo”, where can be found some old constructions. The "Marquise of Santos House" (second construction, to the left), probably built in the last decades of the XVIII Century, is one of the most representative.


São Paulo Metropolitan Cathedral, also known as "Sé Church", is situated in the very heart of the city, close to the place where it was born, in 1554. Its construction started in 1913 and finished in 2002, when its original neogothical project, by German architect Maximilian Emil Hehl, was finally concluded. However, it was inaugurated in 1954, still without its towers. In the same place, in 1551, it was established the city's first Parish, known as the "Old Sé", demolished in 1911.


Important landmark of São Paulo's wealth in the beginning of the XX Century , the "Estação da Luz" (Light's Railway Station), in Downtown São Paulo, was built between 1895 and 1901, in Victorian style and with imported material from England, by James Ford, a British engineer, substituting an older building, constructed in 1867. The current station, recently restored, keeps some differences in relation to the original project, in reason of a fire occurred in 1946. In its interior, beyond the railway station properly said, there is the excellent Museum of the Portuguese Language, a very modern and innovative cultural center.


Here is a partial view of "Mercado Municipal" (Municipal Market), in Downtown São Paulo, an impressive building, built from 1928 to 1932, by famous architect Francisco de Paula Ramos de Azevedo. Apart from the phenomenal display of brazilian and imported fruits, vegetables, cheese and other products, the market is most noted for its 55 big stained-glass windows depicting scenes of cattle raising, market gardening and coffee and banana plantations.


This is part of the Immigrant's Memorial, a kind of São Paulo's "Ellis Island", in the district of Brás. Here, between 1886 and 1978, almost 3 million immigrants stayed in the "Immigrant's Hostel", starting a new life in their new country.