Some photos of Curitiba, Brazil

I visited Curitiba and January and I am presenting some photos I took during my very brief stay there. This city of 1,760,000 inhabitants is my favorite of the cities I visited in Brazil. It was founded in 1694, and is the capital of the state of Paraná in southern Brazil. I am only covering a small part of Curitiba in this thread (mainly the city-center). There are many other areas in the city to explore.

Il you want to see the other threads on the other cities in Paraná I visited click:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=336192 for Maringá
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=357708 for Londrina

Now let's start !

Curitiba around 6:00 am in the morning:









Building with a road going through it:






Portuguese Heritage:



Curitiba is a very green city. It has a lot of small and large parks, this is Praça Carlos Gomes:





More old buildings:









And some talls in the CBD:
















Rua 24 Horas (24 Hours Street) is basically a pedestrian street transformed into a nice shopping center. Despite its name, I found most establishments to be closed at 7am:







More green: Praça Osório



CuritibaÂ's main street is Rua das Flores (Flowers Street): a pedestrian avenue (since 1972) lined with shops, restaurants, as well as banks and other offices.













The cathedral of Curitiba:





A façotomy:



Largo da Ordem is the oldest part of the city center, and seems to be CuritibaÂ's de facto historic district:







Romario Martins House: according to the marker itÂ's the only example of colonial architecture left in the city







This house used to be inhabited by a rich merchant family of German origins:







More churches:





Found this great building with an exhibition on urban planning in Curitiba:





A model of the city from different angles:







Wacky planning



Old and new, red-tile roofs of Largo Ordem in the forefront and skyscrapers of the modern CBD in the background:







Looking towards another cluster:



More photos of the city center:





The former city-hall now sits empty but is being renovated:





IÂ've no idea what these graffiti say:



The former train-station, now a shopping mall:







No thread on Curitiba should fail to mention the cityÂ's world-renowned bus-system featuring its unique bus-stops:



Some bus-lines have their own lanes, and effectively function like light-rail:



The Federal University of Paraná:





The shopping Center Muller (I was told it was formerly an army facility):



An avenues near the Muller:



The Passeio Público:













The Islamic Center: I went inside and it contained a library with few books and some computers.



The Jardim Botanico (Botanical Gardens):





Looking at the cityÂ's talls:







The Italian neighborhood of Santa Felicidade. Many Italians migrated to Brazil, especially from northern Italy, and the neighborhood still has some :











The church is built in Veneto style: with the bell tower detached from the main building



I ate very well here :







Walking towards the city one encounters quite a bit of plastic architecture though:







A neat fountain of (fake) wine :



Looking towards the city one last time:



That was it: I wish I could have stayed in Curitiba longer and have seen attractions such as the Museu Niemeyer, the Bosque Alemão, the panoramic tower, and a ton of other places that are not covered by this thread. Still, I hope you enjoyed it! >