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Praca da Republica is now largely an area of offices, hotels and shops but was once the site of the lavish mansions of the coffee-plantation owners who began to take up residence in the city from about 1870. However, no sooner had the mansions been built - constructed from British iron, Italian marble, Latvian pine, Portuguese tiles and Belgian stained glass - than they were abandoned as the city centre took on a brash and commercial character, and the coffee barons moved to new homes in the Higienopolis district, a short distance west of Praca da Republica. The central mansions were all knocked down, though a few remain in Higienopolis: the Art Nouveau-influenced Vila Penteado , on Rua Maranhao, one of the last to be built in the area, is a fine example.
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