Sooo, São Paulo is the birthday girl today! Famous for being a vibrant place and one of the largest cities in the world, it offers a lot to please locals and travelers. It’s recognized as an important business center and attracts people from all over Brazil to live here. Despite not being a town with many natural beauties, it’s recognized for its economy, history, art, gastronomy and cultural diversity. Below, you can see some interesting spots in the city that were very important along these 462 years of history.
Pátio do Colégio
This is the place where the city was founded on January 25th, 1554. Led by Priest Manuel da Nobrega, Jesuit priests founded the village of São Paulo de Piratininga 462 years ago. If you’re interested in history, this is one of the most relevant places to visit in the city.
Monastery of São Bento
In addition to the building where the monks live, there is a basilica in the same block which is very famous for its singing Gregorian Masses on Sunday mornings. This is not the first temple of Sao Bento built in the sixteenth century to the Benedictine monks, but a version of 1922. The Monastery of São Bento hosted Pope Benedict XVI in his first visit to Brazil.
Sé Cathedral
Located in the square with the same name, Sé Cathedral is a beautiful building in downtown São Paulo. In neo-gothic style with a Renaissance dome, it was inaugurated in 1954 in time for its 400th anniversary. In this same square, there were other churches in the past. Among them, the first mother church of the village of São Paulo de Piratininga.
Teatro Municipal
Inspired by Opera Garnier, the Municipal Theater is one of the postcards of São Paulo. Its historical importance is linked to the fact that it housed the Modern Art Week in 1922 which initiated the Modernism in Brazil.
Liberdade and Bexiga
After receiving a large amount of immigrants, cultural diversity became an important characteristic of the city. Neighborhoods like Liberdade and Bexiga represent very well two major nationalities in São Paulo: the Japanese and the Italians.
