Belém of the Amazon: Scents, Flavors and Mysterie

Belém of the Amazon: Scents, Flavors and Mysteries

Belém, the capital city of Pará, is the principal gateway to the region. It is also one of Brazil’s five largest metropolitan regions. With more than ten thousand trees – mostly mango-trees which form green tunnels even along the streets that carry most of the traffic, and açaí palm trees, Belém offers an array of excursions and tourist events, dozens of cinemas and theatres, including on one Brazil’s biggest and most beautiful theatre houses; open spaces along the rivers that surround the city; eight different environmental parks, important museums and hundreds of cultural and lisure options. For more than 200 years, in each month of October, the city has hosted one of the world's biggest religious events: the Holy Lady of Nazareth Cndle Procession.

The Ver-o-Peso Market, a huge riverfront street market with a mooring port that receives many ships with hundreds of products every day. The name comes from the ancient check points of merchandise inspection.

The Ver-o-Peso Market is a landmark of Belém with its over five hundred species of fishes, countless fruits, craftsmanship and the exotic ladies who sell spells and enchantments, reinforcing the fables and mysteries of Amazonia.

A ride through the Republic and Batista Campos squares, the mango tree tunnels in the Nazaré and Presidente Vargas avenues and the Rodrigues Alves Park (photo) reveal the deep concern with tree coverage and the soothing from the strong tropical heat, which provides a few hours of a delicious and refreshing rain shower.

Located some fifty-four kilometers away from Belém, the island of Mosqueiro has a plethora of river-bathed beaches with waves, completing the harmonious scenery of contrasts and beauties.

These are cultural spaces based on museum concepts covering the city’s bonds with its architecture and history. Close to the Ver-o-Peso Market is the Estação das Docas (photo), with over 32,000 m2, completely air-conditioned, 500 meters of sidewalk by the Guajará Bay, three modernized old warehouses and one dock which belonged to the Port of Belém, restaurants, art galleries, a small brewery, ice-cream shops, handicraft stands, typical food kiosks, coffee bars, a space for fairs and events, a theatre for 400 spectators and a tourist harbor.

During the construction phase, some archeological objects were found that belonged to the small São Pedro Nolasco Fort, a military facility dating back to 1665, which was completely ruined after the Cabanagem War, in 1835. After a minute rescue work, an amphitheatre and an open air mirador were built at the site.

Another must-see is the Pólo Joalheiro, a building dating back to 1749, which was initially a convent and later became a gunpowder deposit, a headquarter, a pottery plant, a hospital, a city jail and a penitentiary.

Now, it has been completely refurbished and houses a Gems Museum, the Jewelry Workshop and the Craftsman House, hence becoming a place of reference for research and culture, thus fostering the production of jewelry by Amazonian designers.

A ride to the old residence of the governors of Pará, revitalized and becoming the Parque da Residência will astonish for housing, in one 12,000 m2 cultural and tourist complex, the Secretary of Culture, an amphitheater, a restaurant, an ice-cream shop in a 19th Century train car, a plaza, a cultural products store, and orchid keeping stand, an European bandstand and the Gasômetro Station, a theater for 400 people built with English iron from the 19th Century.

http://www.paratur.pa.gov.br/english/eng_belem.asp

By: Bianca Gaspar e Marcus Wanzeller