Ibirapuera Park is a major urban park in São Paulo

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It has a large area for leisure, jogging and walking, as well as a convention center. Its importance to São Paulo is comparable to that of the Central Park

Central Park

Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...

 to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The Ibirapuera is one of Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

 largest city parks, together with Chapultepec Park, in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 and Simón Bolívar Park

Simón Bolívar Park

The Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park best known as the Simón Bolívar Park is a greenspace and entertainment and sports complex located in the middle of the city of Bogotá, Colombia.The park is named after the Latin American Liberator Simón Bolívar...

 in Bogota

Bogotá

Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

.

History

Inaugurated in 1954 for the 400th anniversary of the city, with buildings designed by famous architect Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...

 and landscape by designer Roberto Burle Marx

Roberto Burle Marx

Roberto Burle Marx was a Brazilian landscape architect whose designs of parks and gardens made him world famous. He is accredited with having introduced modernist landscape architecture to Brazil...

, Ibirapuera Park covers an area of almost 2 square kilometre (0.77220431718507 sq mi). It is the second biggest park in the city. Admission is free.

Features

The park complex contains several buildings, most of them designed by Oscar Niemeyer. They include:

• The Grande Marquise ("The great marquee"), location of the MAM - Museu de Arte Moderna] ("Modern Art Museum
  São Paulo Museum of Modern Art
  The São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, , is located in Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo....
  
  ");
• The Cicillo Matarazzo Pavilion, home for the Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo
  Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo
  The Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo is a contemporary art museum located in the main campus of the University of São Paulo, in São Paulo, Brazil, and in Ibirapuera Park, in the same city.The museum was inaugurated in 1963, when the Brazilian industrialist and art collector...
  
  , and a space for events and expos, including the São Paulo Art Biennial
  São Paulo Art Biennial
  The São Paulo Art Biennial was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial , which serves as its role model....
  
   and the São Paulo Fashion Week
  São Paulo Fashion Week
  The São Paulo Fashion Week is a fashion event, held at Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo, notable as "Latin America's pre-eminent fashion event," according to one report. It began in 1996, when the event was known as Morumbi Fashion Brazil. It won the current name in January 2001. Today, the event is...
  
  ;
• The Manoel da Nóbrega Pavilion, which until 1992 was the city hall;
• The Lucas Nogueira Garcez Pavilion, formerly known as "Palácio das Exposições"("Expositions Palace") and now known as the Oca ("hut", given its round shape), which harbors both the Museu da Aeronáutica ("Air Force Museum") and the Museu do Folclore ("Folklore Museum");
• The Armando de Arruda Pereira Pavilion, home for the Prodam - Companhia de Processamento de Dados do Município ("Municipal Data Processing Company");
• The Palácio da Agricultura ("Agriculture Palace"), home of Detran, municipal transit department. The building was originally intended to harbor the municipal agriculture department;
• The Planetarium
  Planetarium
  A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
  
  and Municipal Astrophysics
  Astrophysics
  Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
  
   School. The Planetarium building which is shaped like a flying saucer. It was the first Planetarium in the Southern Hemisphere and has a dome which is 20 meters in diameter. The German projection machine shows the sky above São Paulo from dusk to dawn. During the projection a professional astronomer explains the most famous stars and constellations as well as the movements of the Earth and other planets;
• The Gymnasium;
• The Japanese Pavilion
• The Monumento às Bandeiras
• The Ibirapuera Auditorium
  Ibirapuera Auditorium
  The Ibirapuera Auditorium is a building conceived by Oscar Niemeyer for the presentation of musical spectacles, situated in Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo.-History:...
  
  , controversial building that was on the original Niemeyer plan, but was only built recently.
• The Obelisk of São Paulo
  Obelisk of São Paulo
  Obelisk of São Paulo is an obelisk in Ibirapuera Park in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.This monument is a symbol of the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932, and the biggest monument of the city of São Paulo. The height of the monument is 72 meters...
  
  , symbol of the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932
• A statue of Pedro Alvares Cabral
  Pedro Álvares Cabral
  Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
  
   that alleges "Brazilians owe
  Brazil–Portugal relations
  Brazil–Portugal relations have spanned over four centuries, beginning in 1532 with the establishment of São Vicente, the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas, up to the present day. Relations between the two are intrinsically tied because of the Portuguese Empire...
  
   everything to Portugal."

External links

• Official website.. Managed by Ibirapuera Park Management Council, it allows civil society to interact with Park's Administration.
• Auditório Ibirapuera
• Unofficial website
• Museum of Contemporary Art