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Praca da Se is the most convenient starting point for the very brief hunt for colonial Sao Paulo . The square itself is a large expanse of concrete and fountains, dominated by the Catedral Metropolitana , a huge neo-Gothic structure with a capacity of 8000 but otherwise unremarkable. Completed in 1954, it replaced Sao Paulo's eighteenth-century cathedral, which was demolished in 1920. During the day the square outside bustles with activity, always crowded with hawkers and people heading towards the commercial district on its western fringes. At night it's transformed into a campsite for homeless children, who survive as best they can by shining shoes, selling chewing gum or begging. Along Rua Boa Vista, on the opposite side of the square from the cathedral, is where the city of Sao Paulo originated. The whitewashed Portuguese Baroque Patio do Colegio is a replica of the college and chapel that formed the centre of the Jesuit mission founded here in 1554. Although built in 1896 (the other buildings forming the Patio were constructed in the twentieth century), the chapel (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm) is an accurate reproduction, but it's in the Casa de Anchieta (Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 1-5pm), part of the Patio, that the most interesting sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century relics - mostly old documents - are held. Virtually around the corner from the Patio do Colegio at Rua Roberto Simonsen 136 is the Museu da Cidade (Tues-Sun 9am-5pm). More interesting than the museum's small collection chronicling the development of Sao Paulo is the building that it's housed in, the Solar da Marquesa de Santos , an eighteenth-century manor house that represents the sole remaining residential building in the city from this period. A couple of hundred metres from here, at Av. Rangel Pestana 230, is the well-preserved Igreja do Carmo (Mon-Fri 7-11am & 1-5pm, Sat & Sun 7-11am), which was built in 1632 and still retains many of its seventeenth-century features, including a fine Baroque high altar. In these streets, particularly around Rua 25 de Marco, Sao Paulo's Lebanese and Syrian community is concentrated. At Rua Comandante Abdo Schahin 40, the Emporio Syrio sells Middle Eastern delicacies, and on the same road there are some excellent Arab restaurants, always full with local merchants. The community is fairly evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, and hidden away at Rua Cavalheiro Basilio Jafet 15 there's a beautiful Orthodox church . Over the other side of the Praca da Se, a two-minute walk down Rua Senado Feijo to the Largo de Sao Francisco is the Igreja de Sao Francisco (Mon-Fri 7.30am-5.30pm), a typical mid-seventeenth-century Portuguese colonial church which features intricately carved ornaments and an elaborate Baroque altar. While here, step inside the courtyard of the Faculdade de Direito de Sao Paulo - one of Brazil's first higher education institutions, founded in 1824 - which adjoins the church and take a look at the huge 1930s stained-glass window depicting the Largo de Sao Francisco in the early nineteenth century. Before leaving this area, at Praca do Patriarca, by the Viaduto do Cha (the pedestrian bridge linking the two parts of the commercial centre), the Igreja de Santo Antonio is worth a visit. Built in 1717, its yellow and white facade has been beautifully restored; the interior has been stripped of most of its eighteenth-century accoutrements, though its simple painted wooden ceiling deserves a glance.
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