Londrina, Paraná, Brazil

Here are some images of the city of Londrina, located in northern Paraná state, in southern Brazil. With 662.885 inhabitants in its metropolitan area, Londrina is the second largest city in Paraná (after Curitiba and before Maringá). The city was founded in 1929 and named after London (Londrina in Portuguese means little London) because the railroad company that settled northern Paraná was British.

I took the photos in January during my trip to Paraná. I posted a picture thread of Maringá (ParanáÂ's third largest city) earlier: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=336192

I was in Londrina only one day, so the photos are mainly from the city center as I didnÂ't have time to explore the rest of the city.

But first, letÂ's start with some aerials of the city from the airplane:







USA style sprawl in Londrina



The countryside of Paraná:





Airport:



The inter-city bus terminal:







Walking in the city-center:











I found that LondrinaÂ's streets are narrower and less likely to have a median with trees that characterizes the roads of Maringá. I suppose this is due to the fact that Londrina was settled earlier. Overall the city feels more compact than Maringá. Furthermore, this compactness is probably what enabled Londrina to convert a road into an attractive pedestrian boulevard (Avenida Paraná), something which I think is definitely lacking in Maringá:





The Â"Big EarsÂ" telephone booths:



Londrina has a small museum of modern art:





as well as a history museum, which I planned on visiting but was closed for holidays (they forgot to put this info on their website)



Inside a mall in downtown with Christmas decorations:







Despite the hot summer weather, moving white-bears were on display:



LondrinaÂ's Cathedral is located in the town center:







A small part adjacent to the cathedral:





While most of the architecture in Londrina is modern, there seem to be a few traces left of architecture and design from the first half of the 20th century:







The typical wooden houses (with a tile roofs) characteristic of ParanáÂ's early settlement period:






Some low-rise buildings:



CagedÂ…..even on the second floor



This one wins the prize of worst building in the city



Now to the high-rises: almost exclusively residential (just like Maringá):













A couple shots of the suburbs taken from the bus:





Hope you enjoyed. >