Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Handicraft market
Largo dos Jesuítas • Sun 9am-6pm • Free
In the 1970s, Embu was a popular retreat for writers and artists from São Paulo,
many of whom eventually set up home here. Today, the
handicraft market
in
Largo dos Jesuítas, the main square, makes the town a favourite with
paulistano
day-trippers. The shops around the main square stock a similar selection to what's
on offer in the market - pseudo-antiques, rustic furniture, ceramics, leather items,
jewellery and home-made jams - but they are also open during the week (although
many close on Mon).
Igreja Matriz Nossa Senhora do Rosário
Largo dos Jesuítas 67 • Museum: Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 1-5pm • R$3
Largo dos Jesuítas holds an eighteenth-century church called
Igreja Matriz Nossa
Senhora do Rosário
, graced with a typical colonial Baroque exterior. Attached to it, the
Museu de Arte Sacra dos Jesuítas
houses an interesting collection of eighteenth-century
religious artefacts, including a life-size statue of Jesus after crucifixion, carved from a
single log of wood.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
EMBU
By bus
Local bus #033 (“Embu/Eng Velho”) runs from Rua
Teodoro Sampaio at Rua Arruda Alvim in São Paulo
(
M
Clínicas) to the centre of Embu (1hr 30min).
Tourist information
The Centro de Atendimento ao
Turista (CAT) is on Largo 21 de Abril (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm,
Sat & Sun 9am-5pm;
T
11 4704 6565).
8
EATING
Nilda
Travessa Marechal Isidoro Lopes
T
11 4704 5410.
A reasonable place for lunch by Largo dos Jesuítas. The dark
wood decor is a bit heavy and the tables are topped with
granite. Specialities include house-style
carne de sol
(sun-
dried meat), served with kale, beans and
carreteiro
rice.
Mon-Sat 11am-5pm.
O Casarão
Rua Joaquim Santana 12
T
11 4381 3881.
A lively restaurant and
choperia
just off Largo 21 de Abril,
this is a great place to hang out with a beer and good for a
feed too. A
picanha
(rump cap) of beef roasted with garlic
goes down a treat at R$45.
Thurs & Fri 5pm-midnight,
Sat & Sun noon-1am.
Paranapiacaba
Forty kilometres southeast of São Paulo,
PARANAPIACABA
is a funny little village of
railway cottages associated with the old São Paulo Railway. The 139km rail line was
built by a British company in 1867 to carry coffee from the area north of São Paulo
down to the coast at Santos, and it remained under British control until 1947.
Paranapiacaba was the line's administrative and engineering centre, and at one time
housed four thousand workers, many of them British. Neatly laid out in the 1890s in a
grid pattern, the village has remained largely unchanged over the years. All that remains
of the original train station is the
clock tower
, said to be a replica of London's Big Ben,
but the workers' cottages, locomotive sheds (which house old British-built carriages
and steam engines) and funicular cable station are in an excellent state of preservation,
and some are open to the public.
Museu Castelo
Caminho dos Mendes • Tues-Fri 11am-2pm, Sat & Sun 9am-4.30pm • R$3
At the top of the village you'll find the
Castelinho
, the 1897 wooden residence of the
São Paulo Railway's chief engineer. Today it houses the
Museu Castelo
, which displays
old maps and photographs of the rail line's early years, as well as original furniture,
clocks and a scale model of Paranapiacaba.
FROM TOP
ART FOR SALE, EMBU
P.517
; PARANAPIACABA
P.518
>
