São Paulo - Sé: Praça de Sé - Marco Zero
Marco Zero (Zero Point) is the official center of the city of São Paulo and the point where where all distances are measured. A small hexagonal marble monument, designed by Jean Gabriel Villin e Américo R. Neto, showing a map of the roads leaving São Paulo towards other states, was inaugurated on September 18, 1934. Each of the six sides symbolically represents another Brazilian state--Parana (araucaria), Mato Grosso ('bandeirantes' clothing), Santos (ship), Rio de Janeiro (Sugar Loaf mountain and banana plants), Minas Gerais (deep mining materials) and Goias (panner, surface mining material).
Praça da Sé (Sé Square or Cathedral Square), initially known as Largo da Sé, is a public square developed around the religious building that preceded the current Catedral da Sé at the beginning of the 20th century. Its geography has remained mostly unchanged since, but the current landscape is a result of a project led by José Eduardo de Assis Lefèvre in the 1970s to facilitate the opening of a São Paulo Metro station. The design represents influence from landscaping works underway on the west coast of the United States, characterized by rigorous geometry, through multiple levels with reflecting pools and prism-like land masses. Leading to the cathedral are files of imperial palms which enclose a flagstone-covered courtyard.
The plaza has born witness to many of Sao Paulo's historic events over the year, including the Diretas Já, a civil unrest movement in 1984 demanding an end to the dictatorship and calling for direct presidential elections in Brazil.
São Paulo - Sé: Praça de Sé - Marco Zero
Marco Zero (Zero Point) is the official center of the city of São Paulo and the point where where all distances are measured. A small hexagonal marble monument, designed by Jean Gabriel Villin e Américo R. Neto, showing a map of the roads leaving São Paulo towards other states, was inaugurated on September 18, 1934. Each of the six sides symbolically represents another Brazilian state--Parana (araucaria), Mato Grosso ('bandeirantes' clothing), Santos (ship), Rio de Janeiro (Sugar Loaf mountain and banana plants), Minas Gerais (deep mining materials) and Goias (panner, surface mining material).
Praça da Sé (Sé Square or Cathedral Square), initially known as Largo da Sé, is a public square developed around the religious building that preceded the current Catedral da Sé at the beginning of the 20th century. Its geography has remained mostly unchanged since, but the current landscape is a result of a project led by José Eduardo de Assis Lefèvre in the 1970s to facilitate the opening of a São Paulo Metro station. The design represents influence from landscaping works underway on the west coast of the United States, characterized by rigorous geometry, through multiple levels with reflecting pools and prism-like land masses. Leading to the cathedral are files of imperial palms which enclose a flagstone-covered courtyard.
The plaza has born witness to many of Sao Paulo's historic events over the year, including the Diretas Já, a civil unrest movement in 1984 demanding an end to the dictatorship and calling for direct presidential elections in Brazil.