The most unusual and beautiful cities of Brazil
In fact, all Brazilian cities can be considered unusual and beautiful, the country of Brazil itself is very beautiful and quite unusual for Europeans …
The most unusual and beautiful cities of Brazil
But there are few ancient cities that have preserved the pronounced and characteristic architectural style of past eras. In most Brazilian cities, the familiar modern style prevails. In this article we will talk about four Brazilian cities where a peculiar architectural culture has been preserved.
OLINDA
Olinda city in Brazil
The city is located on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. The country from 1500 to 1822 was a Portuguese colony, Olinda is one of the first cities founded by Portuguese colonialists on Brazilian land. The Portuguese colonial style, quite rare in world architecture, has been preserved here. This style is characterized by combinations of bright colors, an abundance of stucco molding and other decor. To the colonial style, many buildings were built in Olinda, Catholic churches. Museums, and there are six of them in Olinda, including the very interesting Museum of Puppets, are also located in old mansions.
Numerous squares and parks create a unique atmosphere of romanticism in this quiet town. And the old fort of St. Francis, on the contrary, looks warlike and impregnable. In 1982, Olinda’s urban development was included by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site.
Olinda
BLUMENAU
City of Blumenau in Brazil
The city of Blumenau was founded in 1850 by immigrants from Germany. This circumstance left an imprint on its architectural appearance. In this city with a German name (the founder is considered to be the German doctor Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau), buildings of modern construction are adjacent to small peaked mansions, crossed with straight lines of half-timbered structures, with towers and spiers. This style is typical for German cities and looks rather unexpected in the Brazilian subtropics. But Oktoberfirst, a traditional German beer festival, against the background of typically German architecture looks very organic and gathers up to 700 thousand tourists annually.
Blumenau
PARTIES
Paraty city in Brazil
This town on the Atlantic coast was founded by the Portuguese in 1630 on the site of an Indian settlement. It is considered the smallest Brazilian city in which a colonial architectural style has been preserved. The influence of this style is noticeable not only in the architecture of three city churches, the oldest of which is the Igreya de Santa Rita temple, was built in 1722, but even in modest houses under tiled roofs on narrow city streets. These houses were built at a time when Portugal actively mined and exported gold from Brazil.
Many tourists come to Paraty only to plunge into the atmosphere of a real 17th-century Latin American port town on these old streets, which keeps many secrets of the gold mining that were very dangerous in the era of pirates and corsairs.
Paraty
ORU PRETO
Ouro Preto city in Brazil
This city in eastern Brazil is one of the few in Latin America where Baroque architecture has been preserved. The mountainous terrain of Oru Preto gives buildings in this pretentious old European style additional flavor and picturesqueness. Ancient buildings are concentrated around Tiradentes Square and the monument to the national hero of Brazil, Joaquin Jose da Silva Xavier. This is the town hall, the building of the former city court and the governor’s house, in both now museums. The remaining Baroque buildings are located on streets radially diverging from the square.
The only building in modern style in the historic center of Oru Preto is the hotel of the same name, designed by the world-famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. The architectural monuments of Ouro Preto are patronized by UNESCO as part of the world cultural heritage.
