Ibirapuera Park was inaugurated in 1954 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of São Paulo, and today is the most well-known park in town with over 14MM visits per year.
The park receives approximately 25,000 visitors from Monday to Friday, 75,000 on Saturday and 150,000 on Sunday. Due to its dimension, attractions and number of visitor, it is often comparable by foreigners to Ueno Park in Tokyo, Stanley Park in Vancouver, Hyde Park in London or Central Park in New York City.
General information
- Address: Av Pedro Álvares Cabral, s/n (portões 2, 3 e 10), Av IV Centenário – portões 6 e 7A, Av República do Líbano – gate 7 (more on public transportion and access at: how to get here)
- Pedestrian: Gates 2, 3, 4, 6, 7A e 10 (maps)
- Vehicle: Gates 3 e 7A (parking space)
- Phone: 11 5574-5045, 5574-5505 (see complete list of contacts)
- Open hours: 5h às 0h (opens 24h from saturday to sunday)
- Activities: find below plus several playground, open gym, walking…
- Area: 1.584.000m²
- Inauguration: 21 de agosto de 1954, celebration of IV Centenary of city of São Paulo.
- Conception: Arq. Oscar Niemeyer, Ulhôa Cavalcanti, Zenon Lotufo, Eduardo Knesse de Mello, Ícaro de Castro Mello, e paisagista Augusto Teixeira Mendes
Attractions
Ibirapuera Parks offers several cultural attraction (see a few below) and areas for fitness, bicycle path, 13 courts and playgrounds. More information is provided in Portuguese at these website, and we encourage you to use chrome google automatic translator to read it.
Biennial Pavilion (Pavilhão da Bienal) is a venue for some of the most important events in São Paulo. The first event in the year to be held is São Paulo Fashion Week, gathering the hottest names in Brazilian fashion and also bring a number of top models to São Paulo. This event is held twice a year (in January (winter collection) and July (summer collection) and has been added to official and world fashion calendar. Two other important events are held here: In even years, Biennial of arts, and in odd years, Biennial of Architecture. Trade shows and congresses are also organized here, like Adventure Sports Fair, the largest sports and tourism fair in Latin America.
Oca do Ibirapuera (1954), former known as Palácio das Artes [Palace of Arts], but renamed “oca” that means “hut” builded at the indigenous style due to its spherical form emerging directly from the ground. In its origin, the location is designed to house sculpture exhibitions. The monolithic aspect of the exterior is counterbalanced by the internal ramps in the form of a horseshoe which connect the four floors of the building and provide changing perspectives of the space. It may nevertheless be noted that the extravagant line of this building should be balanced by the adjacent construction of the Auditorium in a triangular prism of aerodynamic aspect.
The place is famous for holding large exhibitions, like Picasso na Oca, the largest exhibition on this famous Spanish painter in Latin America, Corpos Pintados (Painted Bodies) and Dinos na Oca (Dinosaurs), with more than 400 pieces in 10,000 m².
Japanese Pavilion was built jointly by the Japanese government and the Japanese-Brazilian community and donated to the city of Sao Paulo in 1954. The building’s material was shipped from Japan and its structure is a replica of the Katsura Palace in Kyoto and was built based on traditional Japanese architecture in the Shoin style, used in homes and the homes of the samurai aristocracy
The main building has an exhibition hall with Japanese art, samurai clothes, pottery, sculptures and a tea room. Next to the Japanese Pavilion is a Japanese-style garden full of plants and ornamental trees, and volcanic rock brought from Japan. There is also a pond full of carp, where you can come feed the fish.
Museum of Modern Art (MAM) was founded in 1948 by Francisco Matarazzo, and it is one of the first venues for modern area in Latin America. houses more than 4,000 Brazilian contemporary art works, such as sculptures, painting and others.
Museum of Contemporary Art has its new space located inside Ibirapuera Park. It is managed by University of São Paulo and inaugurated in 1963 because Franscisco Matarazzo Sobrinho (same art collector who founded the Modern Art Museum) decided to donate he and his wife’s private collection to the university. The museum is home to one of the biggest art collections (more than 8,000 pieces) of 20th century Western art in Latin America. Featured famous artists are Umberto Boccioni, Marc Chagall, Tarsila do Amaral, Wassily Kandinsky, Anita Malfatti, Joan Miró, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Candido Portinari and Ismael Nery.
Afro-Brazil Museum is a space dedicated to showing the cultural achievements of Africans in Brazil, both those brought as slaves and their descendants. It is located at the spacious Manoel da Nóbrega Pavilion, part of the Ibirapuera Park architectural complex created in 1954. It’s displays show short biographies of writers or painters or politicians who were black, including lots of their artwork and artifacts. The museum, opened in 2004
Manequinho Lopes Vivarium is a place for you to enjoy a stroll through the beautiful gardens featuring bushes and seedlings found in the area. Its bushes and seedling are used by public administration in gardens and street and avenue arborization processes. Among species found in this area are Brazilian wood, Araguaney and Rosewood, and others.