Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
noted for his choice of Afro-Brazilian and urban themes, Cândido Portinari, whose
work contained clear social and historical references, and the vibrant paintings of
Tarsilla do Amaral. There is also a very pleasant café with a terrace opening onto the
Parque da Luz.
Museu de Arte Sacra
Av Tiradentes 676 • Tues-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm • R$6, free on Sat •
T
11 3326 3336,
W
museuartesacra.org.br •
M
Tiradentes
A short walk north of Praça Luz on Avenida Tiradentes is one of the city's few
surviving colonial churches, the
Igreja do Convento da Luz
, a rambling structure of
uncharacteristic grandeur built on the site of a sixteenth-century chapel. The former
Franciscan monastery and church date back to 1774, but they've been much altered
over the years. Today they're home to São Paulo's
Museu de Arte Sacra
, displaying a fine
collection of Brazilian seventeenth- and eighteenth-century wooden and terracotta
religious art and liturgical pieces.
Memorial da Resistência
Largo General Osório 66 • Tues-Sun 10am-6pm • Free •
T
11 3335 4990,
W
memorialdaresistenciasp.org.br •
M
Luz
West of Praça da Luz along Rua Mauá stands the infamous Edifício DOPS, a large,
anonymous-looking building that was once the headquarters of the Departamento
de Ordem Política e Social, and one of the two main torture centres in São Paulo
during the 1960s-80s military dictatorships. Now it has opened as the
Memorial da
Resistência
, and serves as an exhibition centre commemorating its ugly past with
displays charting Brazil's history of repression, from the rise of Getúlio Vargas in
the 1930s to the more recent struggle for democracy. Temporary art exhibitions
administered by the Pinacoteca do Estado (see opposite)
are also held here.
8
Estação Júlio Prestes
Complexo Cultural Júlio Prestes: Rua Mauá 51 • Mon-Fri 12.30-4.30pm, Sat 2.30-4.30pm • R$5 •
T
11 3351 8200 •
M
Luz
At the intersection of Rua Mauá with Rua Duque de Caxias, you'll find the
Estação
Júlio Prestes
, built between 1926 and 1937, and drawing on late nineteenth-century
French and Italian architectural forms. The building's most beautiful features are its
large stained-glass windows, which depict the role of the railway in the expansion of
the Brazilian economy in the early twentieth century. Although part of the building
still serves as a train station for the CPTM (metropolitan overground railway), its Great
Hall was transformed in the late 1990s into the Sala São Paulo, home of the Orquestra
Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (
W
osesp.art.br), and centrepiece of the
Complexo
Cultural Júlio Prestes
, a cultural centre mainly devoted to classical music that now
occupies most of the building.
Bom Retiro
he
bairro
adjoining Luz to the north is
Bom Retiro
, known for its shops selling cheap
clothes and fabric. In the early 1900s the neighbourhood was predominantly Italian,
with successive waves of Jewish, Greek, Korean and Bolivian immigrants becoming
the most prominent ethnic groups as the century progressed. The main reason for
visiting is to sample the food; there remains a fine Jewish deli (see p.509), a Greek
café (see p.508) and a rapidly growing number of Korean restaurants (see p.508).
Praça da República and around
A kilometre west of Praça da Sé, the area around Praça da República is now dominated
by o
ce buildings, hotels and shops, but was once full of lavish
mansions
belonging to
coffee-plantation owners, who began to take up residence in the city from about 1870.
