Avenida Paulista

Avenida Paulista is São Paulo's best-known thoroughfare, a 2.8-kilometer artery running along a ridge through the Bela Vista and Jardim Paulista districts, lined with bank headquarters, corporate towers and cultural institutions including MASP and the early-1900s Casa das Rosas mansion, one of the few surviving coffee-baron residences on the avenue. On Sundays and public holidays the avenue closes entirely to vehicle traffic from 9AM to 8PM, and the wide roadway fills with cyclists, skaters, street performers, food vendors and protest marches that use the avenue as a traditional gathering point. Walking the full length takes about an hour at an easy pace, passing Parque Trianon's pocket of Atlantic Forest, several shopping galleries, and the entrances to three metro stations that run beneath the street. The avenue is also the anchor of the city's LGBTQ+ Pride Parade and New Year's Eve celebrations, both of which draw large crowds. On a typical weekday the sidewalks are busy with office workers and shoppers rather than tourists, while the car-free Sunday atmosphere is the more relaxed, event-like experience most visitors picture. Photographers get the best skyline views from the MASP end of the avenue, where the museum's raised structure frames the street in both directions.