Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ARAB SÃO PAULO
The area to the west of the Mercado Municipal, particularly around Rua 25 de Março, is where
São Paulo's Lebanese and Syrian community has traditionally concentrated. Although they're
less in evidence than they once were, you'll still find Arabic restaurants and stores selling
Middle Eastern food - the Empório Syrio (see p.516), for example, has been going since 1924.
The community is fairly evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, and hidden away at
Rua Cavalheiro Basilio Jafet 15, you'll find a beautiful Orthodox church.
symbols above the archway just inside the entrance. The rest of the
complex is
closed to the public, however, as it still provides living quarters for Benedictine
monks, who emerge in the mornings to sing Gregorian chants in the church
(Mon-Fri 7am, Sat 6am, Sun 10am); Sunday's chants are, unsurprisingly, by far
the best attended.
Leading off west from São Bento, the
Viaduto Santa Ifigênia
gives good views of the
area looking south, including the new city hall with its rooftop garden. The attractive
green area immediately below, the
Vale do Anhangabaú
(or Demon's Valley), stretches
between this viaduct and the Viaduto do Chá.
Mercado Municipal and around
Rua da Cantareira 306 • Mon-Sat 6am-6pm, Sun 6am-4pm • Free •
M
Luz or São Bento
About 1km to the northeast of São Bento you'll find the
Mercado Municipal
, an
imposing, vaguely German Neogothic hall, completed in 1933. Apart from the
phenomenal display of Brazilian and imported fruit, vegetables, cheese and other
produce, the market is most noted for its enormous stained-glass windows depicting
scenes of cattle raising, market gardening, and coffee and banana plantations. The food
stalls are particularly known for their especially tasty
pastéis de bacalhau
(saltfish and
potato pasties), and if you head up to the mezzanine, there's a whole range of patio
restaurants
serving authentic food in a colourful setting.
8
Memorial do Imigrante
Rua Visconde de Paraíba 1316 • Closed for renovation at time of writing - please call or visit website for the latest information •
T
11 3311 7700,
W
memorialdoimigrante.org.br •
M
Brás
East of the Mercado Municipal, the run-down neighbourhood of Brás would have
little to offer if it wasn't for the superb
Memorial do Imigrante
. The old hostel
buildings house an immigration research centre, a basic café and one of the best
museums in São Paulo.
The museum has a permanent collection of period furniture, documents and
photographs, and regularly mounts temporary exhibits relating to individual
immigrant nationalities. The main building itself is the most interesting feature of
the complex, however, with vast dormitories and its own rail siding and platform
that were used for unloading immigrants and their baggage. Near the entrance, a
separate building contained the rooms where new arrivals met their prospective
employers; the government provided interpreters to help the immigrants make sense
of work contracts. Designed to hold four thousand people, the hostel housed as
many as ten thousand at times, with immigrants being treated little better than
cattle. In its early years, the place was a virtual prison. The exit ticket was securing a
contract of employment and control of potential plantation-workers was considered
necessary, since few people actually wanted to work in the fields and there was a
large labour leakage to the city of São Paulo itself. The last immigrants were
processed here in 1978.
Although the museum is only a five-minute walk from Brás
metrô
station (alongside
the rail line and over a pedestrian bridge), the area is a little bit rough and you may feel
uncomfortable walking here alone. Taxis are rarely available, but on weekends and
