Sao Paulo and it's Metropoletan Area

Originally founded as São Paulo de Piratininga, the city is known simply as São Paulo today.

Its residents are referred to as Paulistanos, while those who reside outside the city, but in the surrounding state of São Paulo, are called Paulistas.

São Paulo is an immense city. The city proper covers an area of about 1,500 sq km (about 580 sq mi) and the metropolitan region spreads out over about 7,900 sq km (about 3,100 sq mi).

The commercial core of the city is found in an area known locally as the Triângulo (Triangle).

The large Praça da República (Plaza of the Republic) forms one of the center’s key geographical anchors, and many hotels and restaurants are located on adjacent streets.

In addition, there is a wide range of commercial, retail, and office establishments located in the area, as well as a number of the city’s principal landmarks.

These include the 42-story Edifício Itália (Italian Building); the nearby modernistic S-shaped skyscraper, the Copan Building; and the Municipal Theater, which blends art nouveau and Italian Renaissance architectural styles.

The imposing and architecturally significant German Gothic Municipal Market is on the northeast margin of the city center, near Dom Pedro II Park.

The historic core of the city is located just southeast of the commercial core and is focused on the Páteo do Colégio, the site of the city’s original founding.

During the 1970s two of the city’s first structures, a chapel and mission house known as the Anchieta House, were reconstructed (the originals had been constructed in 1554).

Several other churches of historical significance are located nearby—the Church of Carmo, the San Francisco Church, and the Church of San Antonio.

The neo-Gothic cathedral, Our Lady of the Assumption, is located nearby on Cathedral Plaza.

The influential and historically significant Law Faculty of the University of São Paulo is located several blocks to the east.

A second, more modern business center for the city is being created along Avenida Paulista, just southwest of the Triangle business district.

A number of business functions, especially banking and finance, are concentrated in this area.

The striking, triangular high-rise building housing the Industrial Federation of the state of São Paulo towers over Avenida Paulista.

There are a number of residential districts in the city. Historically, the city’s most successful and elite merchants and coffee growers built their mansions along Avenida Paulista.

The area to the south of the avenue, including Jardim Paulista and Jardim America, is an upper-middle class neighborhood.

Other residential districts in the central portion of the city include Jardim Europa, Cantareira, and Brooklyn.

Many Paulistanos live in desperate conditions; it is estimated that 3 million live in slum tenements, known as corticos, and 1 million in shantytowns, known as favelas.

Many of the people who have migrated from the impoverished states of northeastern Brazil to São Paulo are concentrated in the vast slum neighborhood of Brás.

The city’s population is decidedly multiethnic, and several residential districts close to the central city core are strongly identified with various immigrant groups.

Liberdade is the center of the Japanese population and has a sprinkling of Chinese and Koreans. Just to its east, Bela Vista, or Bixiga, is the Italian area.

The neighborhood north of the city center, Bom Retiro, is the traditional home to Lebanese and Arab immigrants and still retains a Middle Eastern flavor.

The São Paulo metropolitan region includes a multitude of independent municipalities or towns.

Many of the region’s key manufacturing activities are located in the outlying municipalities.

Significant among these are Santo Andre, São Bernardo do Campo, and São Caetano do Sul—sometimes known as the ABC suburbs where automobile, steel, and other manufacturers have concentrated.

Other important municipalities include Guarulhos, Diadema, Mogi das Cruzes, and Osasco.