Brazil - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 332

Líbero you'll find São Paulo's grand train
station, Estação da Luz , built by the
British in 1901. Though gutted by fire in
1946, you can still appreciate much of its
elegant original decoration. Behind the
station, the startlingly tropical Parque da
Luz (daily 10am-6pm) was São Paulo's
first public garden, dating from 1800. Its
bandstands and ponds are proof of a ritzy
past, yet today the sculptures lining its
walkways provide a more modern feel.
Back behind the station is the entrance
to the innovative Museu da Língua
Portuguesa (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm;
R$5). A series of interactive exhibitions
- which even non-Portuguese speakers
will appreciate - guides you through the
language's development from Portugal to
Brazilian literary greats, as well as modern
urban slang in football and music. The
Pinacoteca do Estado (Av Tiradentes 141;
Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; R$5) is directly
opposite the museum, adjacent to the
park, and well worth a visit for its
collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-
century Brazilian painting and sculpture
- start on the first floor where you'll find
the most impressive pieces by Almeida
Junior, Cavalcanti, Segall and Portinari.
São Paulo's other great train station,
Estação Júlio Prestes , lies two blocks west
of Luz, built in 1926 and said to be
modelled after New York's Grand Central
and Pennsylvania stations. Its Great Hall
has now been transformed into Sala São
Paulo , a 1500-seat concert hall home
to the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de
São Paulo.

lined with high-class shops and still
retains some of its old elegance, though
the building that most stands out is
famed Brasília architect Oscar Niemeyer's
S-shaped Edifício Copan - an experiment
in mixed urban living with apartments
available at all prices.
Three blocks east of the praça is the
grand Teatro Municipal , an enticing mix
of Art Nouveau and Renaissance styles
and the city's premier venue for classical
music, decorated with mirrors, Italian
marble and gold leaf (viewable during
performances or by free guided tour
Tues-hurs; phone T 11 3397 0327).

3

Liberdade and Bixiga
Immediately south of Praça da Sé ,
Liberdade is the home of São Paulo's
Japanese community, its streets lined
on either side with overhanging red
lampposts. You'll find great traditional
Japanese food here on the streets off
Praça da Liberdade (site of a good Sunday
market), as well as Chinese and Korean
eateries and stores. There is even a Museu
da Imigração Japonesa (Rua São Joaquim
381; Tues-Sun 1.30-5.30pm; R$5),
whose three floors document the
contributions Japanese immigrants have
made in Brazil in the hundred years since
they first arrived to work on the coffee
plantations. The neighbourhood west
of here, the Italian enclave of Bixiga or
Bela Vista, is also a fantastic place to eat,
coming to life at night with restaurants,
bars and clubs, especially on Rua 13 de
Maio and surrounding streets. The
Museu Memória do Bixiga ( Rua dos
Ingleses 118; Wed-Sun 2-5pm; R$5)
provides the lowdown on the Italian
community here in a traditional early
twentieth-century house.

Praça da República
Downtown São Paulo's other main focal
point is around the Praça da República ,
a once-affluent area that was originally
the site of high-end mansions belonging
to wealthy coffee plantation owners
during the nineteenth century, though
almost all have been lost. Just off the
praça , take the elevator to the top of the
42-storey Edifício Italia (Av Ipiranga 344),
completed in 1965; the rooftop
restaurant is tacky but there are
spectacular vistas from the viewing
platform (R$15). South of the Edifício
Italia is Avenida São Luis , which was once

Barra Funda and Pacaembu
The main claim to fame of industrial
Barra Funda (northwest of Centro) is
the extraordinary modernist complex
Memorial da América Latina (Tues-Sun
9am-6pm; R$5), created by Oscar
Niemeyer and located next to the giant
Barra Funda bus and metrô station.
The series of monolithic buildings and
monuments is dedicated to Latin