6 Best Sights in São Paulo, Brazil

A striking low-rise building elevated on two massive concrete pillars holds one of the city's premier fine arts collections. The highlights include works by Van Gogh, Renoir, Delacroix, Cézanne, Monet, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Degas. The baroque sculptor Aleijadinho, the expressionist painter Lasar Segall, and the expressionist/surrealist painter Cândido Portinari are three of the many Brazilian artists represented. The huge open area beneath the museum is often used for cultural events and protests, and is the site of a charming Sunday antiques fair.

The final building in Oscar Niemeyer's design for the park, the Auditório opened in 2005. It has since become one of São Paulo's trademark sights, with what looks like a giant red lightning bolt striking a massive white daredevil ramp. Seating up to 800, the concert hall regularly welcomes leading Brazilian and international musical acts. Its back wall can be retracted to reveal the stage to thousands more on the lawn outside.

Originally, COPAN was designed to be a 30-story residential building and another that would house a hotel with 600 apartments, which would be interconnected and also have a cinema, theater, and commerce. However, only the residential project was built in 1950. There are 1,160 apartments with about 5,000 people living there, making it the largest residential complex in the country.

The memorial's massive concrete hand sculpture, its fingers reaching toward the São Paulo sky, is one of the city's signature images. Part of a 20-acre park filled with Oscar Niemeyer–designed structures, the Memorial da América Latina was inaugurated in 1989 in homage to regional unity and its greatest champions, among them Simón Bolívar and José Martí. Aside from the monument, the grounds' highlights include works by Cândido Portinari and an auditorium dedicated to musical and theatrical performances.

In even-numbered years this pavilion hosts the Bienal (Biennial), an exhibition that presents the works of artists from more than 60 countries. The first such event was held in 1951 in Parque Trianon and drew artists from 21 countries. After Ibirapuera Park's inauguration in 1954, the Bienal was moved to this Oscar Niemeyer–designed building that's noteworthy for its large open spaces and floors connected by circular slopes.

An exact replica of the Katsura Imperial Palace in Kyoto, Japan, the Japanese Pavilion is one of the structures built for the Parque Ibirapuera's inauguration. Designed by professor Sutemi Horiguti of the University of Tokyo, it was built in Japan and reassembled here beside the man-made lake in the Japanese-style garden. The main building displays samurai clothing, pottery, and sculpture from several dynasties; rooms upstairs are used for traditional tea ceremonies.