Praça Vinte e Nove de Março
A time-line or wall of memories, passes like a straight pathway at the upper part of the praça, but below the street, and passing under the big sculpture and fountain in the middle of the square. Kids bike or skate here, people run down the stairs and crossing to the other side of the square. Under the trees younger kids are playing, couple kissing, eating ice-creams, walking their baby in its buggy... Praça Vinte e Nove de Março is a rather big square - and the feeling is enhanced by the presence of this huge sculpture in its center - but walking on it, it offers many diverse spaces for various activities, more intimistic spaces, frames on the surrounding buildings and peace from the roads passing along it.
From under the sculpture, under the waterfall, on rua Martin Afonso - main street to the center
Walking up rua Brigadeiro Franco, on the corner of the square, a little homy house is condemned to become something amazing... in someone's eyes, but is going to be lost in mine. Under that tree, on this corner, this little humble building just fit perfectly - and considering that the high rise buildings running along the main development axis aren't further than some hundred meters.
Before - After
From under the sculpture, under the waterfall, on rua Martin Afonso - main street to the center
Walking up rua Brigadeiro Franco, on the corner of the square, a little homy house is condemned to become something amazing... in someone's eyes, but is going to be lost in mine. Under that tree, on this corner, this little humble building just fit perfectly - and considering that the high rise buildings running along the main development axis aren't further than some hundred meters.
Before - After
Reaching the main street between Santa Felicidade and Centro histórico, pizza and pasta places start to become more regular. I turn down towards the Center. There are funny walls, painted, coloured with signs, and some graffitis, then a wall without...
Coloured walls
"Misters street artists, spare your sprays and earn in solidarity - Each month that this wall not gets painted with graffitis, a charity institution receives R$ 50,00"
Coloured walls
"Misters street artists, spare your sprays and earn in solidarity - Each month that this wall not gets painted with graffitis, a charity institution receives R$ 50,00"
There are views, sneak-peeks to the city's high skylines, to private gardens squeezed in between buildings...
View over to Cabral and Bacacheri
Colourful house
There is the highest building of Curitiba, the Palacio das telecomunicaçoes. A huge squared building with pare-soleils and facade expression as it could be residential almost. A grey building but with many nuances of grey. Actually a rather beautiful building, thinking that it is basically a skull for radiodistribution machines, at least a characteristic one.
Palacio das telecomunicacões
There are cafés full of people, a church full of people, then the historical center of Largo da Ordem, cheio as well. On a sunny day, what else to expect.
Way down to São Francisco
Largo da Ordem
The bars and cafes in Largo da Ordem
Largo da Ordem is the historical center, the place where is located the huge Sunday market for
all kind of artisanal stuff, the place to find the nice bars in town, some nice music bars and clubs as well... It is a cultural place, with the old casa da prefeitura, historical architecture and houses, ateliers, antiques, galleries and museums... The first time I was there I discovered the museum of a Norvegian painter who came to Paraná, and Curitiba, in the beginning of the 20th century and had his own little academy of painting, hereby forming a little school society typical for those years...a norwegian in Curitiba, back then...! All nationalities have really come to this land.
I reach rua Treze de Maio - the theater street. Here are theater schools, theaters of all kind, big ones, small ones, fancy ones, coloured ones...
Then down to the shopping Mueller. This shopping mall is one of the fine looking, typical ones - I mean in terms of architectonics. Its first use as a fabric gives it a particular look and a history - and probably adds to its expensive character. The sad thing is that no one seems to remember what kind of production was done in this ancient fabric... I keep asking.
Just on the corner is the Praça Dezenove de Novembro, also know as the naked man's square, since there are the statues of a naked man and women - huge! - on the square. He looks forward, straight and sure... some symbolic for looking towards the future and evolution - or something in that sense. Again various spaces with people sitting walking - green areas, mineral areas, people staying, sitting, walking, crossing, cleaning... A lot of activity. And then those magnificent red flowers! Fantastic in their colour and sharpness against the grey of the stone...
Praça Dezenove de Dezembro
Fountain on the praça - the space to admire
Women statue on the praça - the space to walk, sit...
Curitiba traffic on the end of a Friday afternoon
Entering Passeio Público
The late afternoon sun drags me to Passeio Público - the first square and parc I visited in Curitiba, when it was frio da porra! Today it looks much more friendly, and my tour there offers surprises I wouldn't have expected in the middle of this town: monkeys wondering and swinging freely in the trees.
Yes, the parc was a previous zoo, the first of the town, but still those animals left here - mostly birds - are in cages. Here as well new ones have been locked out: flamingos, some kind of Brasilian eagles, and other which I don't know the names of... I really need to find a book about the flora and fauna of this region!
Birds in Passeio Público
In Passeio Público, you can go for a walk - a public walk, as is the name of the parc - you can admire the animals, you can eat ice-cream or pipoca (pop corn), you can just sit and watch other people, you can take your kids to play, you can go for a boat tour on the little lakes and lagoons. Idylic place especially under the sun. But if you come late at evening or night - don't go. It is the place for hookers and men, where you don't feel welcome or safe really. And when the parc is closed, it is the district around it that becomes a bit dodgy. That is how this city is, probably how most cities are here, changing radically atmosphere between day and night. But it is somehow what cities are, being the place for everyone and all... It is what public space is - doesn't take away the pleasure of enjoying it.
Pipoca seller
Dramatic scenery of Mata atlantica flora on a canvas of high city buildings
On to Praça Santos Andrade, where lies the Teatro Guaira and the first building of the Federal University of Paraná - UFP. The sun is an amazing scene director! The trees, the shadows, the buildings...old ladies sitting on a bench while an old gentleman chap brings them pop corn...people rushing to the bus, heading home with the day's shopping before ir pra balada (going out clubbing)...young couples here and there. Life everywhere under the tree's roof.
The old UFP building on one side...
...the theater on the other...
...busses, parc and people in the middle.
Around Praça Santos Andrade - some superb contrasts
On the way...rua XV de Novembro - the shopping street which was turned pedestrian in the course of one weekend!
Last stop is Praça Osório - I really like that square. A straight path through and green intimate corners on the sides, with benches. Sometimes cosy, sometimes dodgy, everything and everyone under the same green vegetation roof.
Praça Osório and its vegetal roof
And home to Bigorrilho again, with a fantastic sunset, reflecting itself on the high buildings'shiny skin...
View over to Cabral and Bacacheri
Colourful house
There is the highest building of Curitiba, the Palacio das telecomunicaçoes. A huge squared building with pare-soleils and facade expression as it could be residential almost. A grey building but with many nuances of grey. Actually a rather beautiful building, thinking that it is basically a skull for radiodistribution machines, at least a characteristic one.
Palacio das telecomunicacões
There are cafés full of people, a church full of people, then the historical center of Largo da Ordem, cheio as well. On a sunny day, what else to expect.
Way down to São Francisco
Largo da Ordem
The bars and cafes in Largo da Ordem
Largo da Ordem is the historical center, the place where is located the huge Sunday market for
all kind of artisanal stuff, the place to find the nice bars in town, some nice music bars and clubs as well... It is a cultural place, with the old casa da prefeitura, historical architecture and houses, ateliers, antiques, galleries and museums... The first time I was there I discovered the museum of a Norvegian painter who came to Paraná, and Curitiba, in the beginning of the 20th century and had his own little academy of painting, hereby forming a little school society typical for those years...a norwegian in Curitiba, back then...! All nationalities have really come to this land.
I reach rua Treze de Maio - the theater street. Here are theater schools, theaters of all kind, big ones, small ones, fancy ones, coloured ones...
Then down to the shopping Mueller. This shopping mall is one of the fine looking, typical ones - I mean in terms of architectonics. Its first use as a fabric gives it a particular look and a history - and probably adds to its expensive character. The sad thing is that no one seems to remember what kind of production was done in this ancient fabric... I keep asking.
Just on the corner is the Praça Dezenove de Novembro, also know as the naked man's square, since there are the statues of a naked man and women - huge! - on the square. He looks forward, straight and sure... some symbolic for looking towards the future and evolution - or something in that sense. Again various spaces with people sitting walking - green areas, mineral areas, people staying, sitting, walking, crossing, cleaning... A lot of activity. And then those magnificent red flowers! Fantastic in their colour and sharpness against the grey of the stone...
Praça Dezenove de Dezembro
Fountain on the praça - the space to admire
Women statue on the praça - the space to walk, sit...
Curitiba traffic on the end of a Friday afternoon
Entering Passeio Público
The late afternoon sun drags me to Passeio Público - the first square and parc I visited in Curitiba, when it was frio da porra! Today it looks much more friendly, and my tour there offers surprises I wouldn't have expected in the middle of this town: monkeys wondering and swinging freely in the trees.
Ape watching...
Yes, the parc was a previous zoo, the first of the town, but still those animals left here - mostly birds - are in cages. Here as well new ones have been locked out: flamingos, some kind of Brasilian eagles, and other which I don't know the names of... I really need to find a book about the flora and fauna of this region!
Birds in Passeio Público
In Passeio Público, you can go for a walk - a public walk, as is the name of the parc - you can admire the animals, you can eat ice-cream or pipoca (pop corn), you can just sit and watch other people, you can take your kids to play, you can go for a boat tour on the little lakes and lagoons. Idylic place especially under the sun. But if you come late at evening or night - don't go. It is the place for hookers and men, where you don't feel welcome or safe really. And when the parc is closed, it is the district around it that becomes a bit dodgy. That is how this city is, probably how most cities are here, changing radically atmosphere between day and night. But it is somehow what cities are, being the place for everyone and all... It is what public space is - doesn't take away the pleasure of enjoying it.
Pipoca seller
Dramatic scenery of Mata atlantica flora on a canvas of high city buildings
On to Praça Santos Andrade, where lies the Teatro Guaira and the first building of the Federal University of Paraná - UFP. The sun is an amazing scene director! The trees, the shadows, the buildings...old ladies sitting on a bench while an old gentleman chap brings them pop corn...people rushing to the bus, heading home with the day's shopping before ir pra balada (going out clubbing)...young couples here and there. Life everywhere under the tree's roof.
The old UFP building on one side...
...the theater on the other...
...busses, parc and people in the middle.
Around Praça Santos Andrade - some superb contrasts
On the way...rua XV de Novembro - the shopping street which was turned pedestrian in the course of one weekend!
Last stop is Praça Osório - I really like that square. A straight path through and green intimate corners on the sides, with benches. Sometimes cosy, sometimes dodgy, everything and everyone under the same green vegetation roof.
Praça Osório and its vegetal roof
And home to Bigorrilho again, with a fantastic sunset, reflecting itself on the high buildings'shiny skin...
That was that amazing day, another one, a new one, one more... How lucky can one be?
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