Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
1822 and adhesion to the Republic in 1888 were declared from here, and it was on the
main staircase that President Lobo de Souza was shot down on January 7, 1835, in the
early hours of the Cabanagem Rebellion (see p.337). The palace later became the centre
of days-long street fighting at the rebellion's height, which left hundreds dead.
Today it houses the
Museu do Estado do Pará
, showcasing historical pieces and a small
collection of stunning Art Nouveau furniture. It is the building itself, however, that is
the real highlight. The reception rooms overlooking the square were rebuilt at the turn
of the twentieth century with no expense spared and, perhaps even more than the
Manaus opera house, give an idea of what an extraordinary period the rubber boom was.
Largo do Carmo
It's worth taking a stroll around the perfectly preserved and quite gorgeous
Largo do
Carmo
, an eighteenth-century square dominated by the church of the same name, built
by Italian architect Antonio Landí. During the belle époque the Largo do Carmo was
beautified with pretty mango trees and new paving in an effort to encourage the use of
open spaces and emulate a European way of life, where public gardens were a place of
distraction and relaxation.
Mangal das Garças
Passagem Carneiro da Rocha • Tues-Sun 9am-6pm • Tickets needed for the aviary, Museum of Navigation,
borboletário
and
observation tower, and available from a kiosk at the bottom of the observation tower; combination ticket R$12; individual tickets R$4 •
T
91 3242 5052 • Free parking
Set on the banks of the Guamá River, the park of
Mangal das Garças
is a pleasant spot
for a stroll. It is dominated by an
observation tower
with wonderful river and city views
from the top. Within the grounds is also the
Museum of Navigation
, with miniature
models of Amazon boats and boatbuilding. A wooden walkway leads out to a platform
over the mudflats, where the combination of shade, river tra
c and birdlife is
hypnotic. Here there is an
aviary
, home to numerous species of birds, including the
spectacular scarlet ibis and pretty tanagers. Nearby is the
Borboletário Márcio Ayres
,
a butterfly sanctuary named after a pioneering Amazonian conservationist who died
tragically young of cancer. The air here is cool and comes from pipes high above
spraying water droplets to create the humidity and moisture the butterflies need.
São José Liberto
Praça Amazonas
• Tues-Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 10am-6pm • Free entry to complex; Gemology Museum of Pará R$4 •
T
91 3344 3500,
W
saojoseliberto.com.br
Once a church and then the city prison,
São José Liberto
's often grim history has vanished
without trace in an imaginative restoration and conversion: it is now a cultural complex
housing an exhibition space, the fascinating
Museu de Gemas do Pará
, and a number of
workshops where you can see gem cutters at work and purchase their output directly.
The entrance hall is a modern annexe built onto the colonial core, and has a café.
The highlight (apart from the air conditioning) is the stalls selling the best of local
handicrafts (see p.344) - most notably the very distinctive tribal-influenced ceramics
produced at Icoaraci (see p.344). Buying here will save you a long bus ride, and it's
exactly the same stuff (although rather more expensive). The space is also often used
for shows and live music performances in the late afternoon and evening, especially at
weekends; it's always worth asking if anything is scheduled.
he
gemology museum
and
jewellery workshops
are in the colonial part of the
building; the workers ply their trade behind glass walls, for all the world like fish in an
aquarium, with a number of bijou shops displaying the finished products nearby. The
gemology museum offers a fascinating display of over 4000 precious and semiprecious
stones (cut and uncut) in a strongroom; among the highlights is the fossilized trunk of
a psaronius tree that dates back approximately 250 million years.
