Praça da República

Once a neighbourhood of lavish mansions housing the first coffee barons in the 1870s, this area was annexed into the commercial centre and came to be known as Centro Novo when the Viaduto do Chá spanning Vale do Anhangabaú opened in 1892. The mansions were quickly demolished, and the barons and their families fled to apparently more hygienic Higienópolis and the newly inaugurated Avenida Paulista. Like many world financial centres, República remains quiet (and gritty) at night and weekends, but during daylight hours it is as loud as Jardins. The businessmen along Avenida Ipiranga and Avenida São Luis and the tatooed hipsters and hippie vendors along Avenida São João bring a pulsating energy to the city streets and a reminder that the term "traffic" in São Paulo can refer just as easily to calor humano (human heat) as to carbon dioxide-producing vehicles. Praça da República is a lush green oasis in the middle of a desert of grey buildings - the arguably successful result of 2007's Cidade Limpa Law. In the 19th century, República and bullfights; in modern times, the square has been a natural home to political protests and free concerts. Recently restored, it contains small lakes crossed by iron footbridges, where the turtles sun themselves on rocks. One entire side of the square is taken up by the yellow Prédio do Caetano de Campos. Designed by architect Ramos de Azevedo in 1894, the building housed an exclusive school whose alumni include Mário de Andrade (a modernist writer) and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda (a historian, and father of musician Chico Buarque). In 1978, the building was almost demolished during the construction of the new subway, but a last-minute campaign by local architects was successful, and it found new life as the Ministério da Educação.