According to commit4fitness, São Paulo [sã  m pa  lu], is the capital of the state of the same name and the largest city of Brazil, 750-850 m above sea level, in a flat basin of the Rio Tiete, (2018) 12.1 million residents (1934: 1 Million, 1950: 2.04 million, 1970: 5.19 million), in the urban agglomeration (7,947 km ²) with 38 other cities, 21.6 million residents.

São Paulo is the cultural and economic center of Brazil, with archbishopric, two state universities, Catholic and others. private universities, colleges, academies, Institute of History and Geography, serotherapeutischem Institute Butantan u. a. scientific institutes; also Latin American cultural center, Goethe Institute and others. foreign cultural centers (including German schools), libraries, museums, theaters, botanical gardens, zoos.

With the coffee cultivation in the state of São Paulo (from 1860), the beginning of industrialization (end of the 19th century) and cotton cultivation (1929), the economic boom began in the city, which in 1890 only had 70,000 residents. São Paulo profited greatly from the mass immigration of Italians, Portuguese and Spaniards that began in the 1880s, as well as Germans and Japanese; as a result, the proportion of the formerly predominant blacks and mixed race was strongly pushed back (still around 30%). Today São Paulo is the leading industrial city in Brazil and the largest industrial center in Latin America with automotive, chemical, electronic, iron and steel, pharmaceutical, plastics, textile and clothing, food and beverage, machinery, solar, Wood and paper industry. The largest stock exchange in Latin America is located in São Paulo. Many large and medium-sized German companies have founded subsidiaries in São Paulo. Film and television studios have also emerged.

The concentration of industrial locations in São Paulo led to a very high level of internal migration (much more important than immigration) from northeastern Brazil as well as from the southeast, south and, above all, the interior of the state of São Paulo until the 1980s. The hypertrophic growth of São Paulo, one of the fastest growing metropolises in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s, has led to extensive slums, heavily burdened infrastructure (especially in terms of traffic, energy and water supply) and extreme environmental pollution.

The core city of São Paulo has had a negative migration balance since the 1990s, and the slowdown in growth in the metropolitan region as a whole can only be attributed to the surplus of births. Numerous relief centers have formed in the area, so that one can even speak of a conurbation reversal. A subway has been in operation since 1974, its route network was expanded from (1974) 20.2 km to (2015) 74.8 km. São Paulo has one international (Guarulhos; opened 1985) and two national airports, is connected by highways and railways with the port of Santos and with Rio de Janeiro as well as with the interior of the state of São Paulo.

Cityscape

At the site of the first mission station, the São Bento monastery was built in 1922 using traditional methods. The city is a modern metropolis, largely characterized by high-rise buildings. The 168 m high Edifício Italia (1952–56) was created by the Corbusier student Adolf Franz Heep. The neo-Gothic cathedral was completed in 1954. R. Levi, J. Guedes, O. Niemeyer erected important buildings in an international design language. In Ibirapuera Park, exemplary modern Brazilian architecture has been built since the 1950s (Palace of Industry; Museu de Arte Moderna, MAM; Museu de Arte Contemporânea, MAC, which is also the venue for the biennial for contemporary art). Last there was the O. Niemeyer designed concert hall completed (2004). The Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP; opened in 1968) houses an important collection of paintings (Latin America’s largest collection of international, especially European art from the Middle Ages to the modern age), the Museu de Arte Sacra, religious works mainly by Brazilian artists, the Pinacoteca Do Estado (Brazilian art of the 19th and 20th centuries). Based on plans by O. Niemeyer The 140 m high “Conjunto Copan” building (completed in 1957) and the Latin American cultural center (inaugurated in 1998) were also built. The largest football stadium is the Estádio do Morumbi (67,052 seats), but a new stadium (Arena Corinthians; 48,234 seats) was built to host the opening game of the 2014 World Cup.

History

São Paulo, founded in 1554 by the Portuguese Jesuits as a missionary station, became the capital of the São Paulo Capitanate in 1683 instead of São Vicente (until then São Vicente Capitanate) and in 1711 a city. In 1822, Emperor Peter I declared Brazil’s independence from Portugal in São Paulo.