Ibirapuera Park

Karina sent me this lovely card featuring The Ibirapuera Park, a major urban park in São Paulo, Brazil. It has a large area for leisure, jogging and walking, as well as a convention centre. Its importance to São Paulo is comparable to that of the Central Park to New York City. The Ibirapuera is one of Latin America largest city parks, together with Chapultepec Park, in Mexico City and Simón Bolívar Park in Bogota. Inaugurated in 1954 for the 400th anniversary of the city, with buildings designed by famous architect Oscar Niemeyer and landscape by designer Roberto Burle Marx, Ibirapuera Park covers an area of almost 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi). It is the second biggest park in the city.

The park complex has many interesting features for residents and visitors. They include: The Grande Marquise ("The great marquee"), location of the MAM - Museu de Arte Moderna] ("Modern Art Museum"); The Cicillo Matarazzo Pavilion, home for the Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo, and a space for events and expos, including the São Paulo Art Biennial and the São Paulo Fashion Week; The Manoel da Nóbrega Pavilion, which until 1992 was the city hall; The Lucas Nogueira Garcez Pavilion, formerly known as "Palácio das Exposições"("Expositions Palace") and now known as the Oca ("hut", given its round shape), which harbors both the Museu da Aeronáutica ("Air Force Museum") and the Museu do Folclore ("Folklore Museum"); The Armando de Arruda Pereira Pavilion, home for the Prodam - Companhia de Processamento de Dados do Município ("Municipal Data Processing Company"); The Palácio da Agricultura ("Agriculture Palace"), home of Detran, municipal transit department. The building was originally intended to harbor the municipal agriculture department; The Planetarium and Municipal Astrophysics School. The Planetarium building which is shaped like a flying saucer. It was the first Planetarium in the Southern Hemisphere and has a dome, which is 20 meters in diameter. The German projection machine shows the sky above São Paulo from dusk to dawn. During the projection a professional astronomer explains the most famous stars and constellations as well as the movements of the Earth and other planets; The Gymnasium; The Japanese Pavilion; The Monumento às Bandeiras; The Ibirapuera Auditorium, controversial building that was on the original Niemeyer plan, but was only built recently; The Obelisk of São Paulo, symbol of the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 and the statue of Pedro Alvares Cabral that proclaims "Brazilians owe everything to Portugal."