Villa-Lobos State Park () is a park in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Brazil. It is named after composer

Heitor Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has globally bec ...

, and is located next to

Pinheiros River The Pinheiros River () is a tributary of the Tietê River that runs through the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Until 1920, the river was known as ''Jurubatuba''. After being channelized its name was changed to ''Pinheiros''. In southern São Paulo ...

. It was created in 1989 on a site that was previously used as a

rubbish tip A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

. The park now has around 37,000 trees. It hosted the annual

Aberto de São Paulo The Aberto de São Paulo was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was part of the ATP Challenger Tour. It was held annually at the Villa-Lobos State Park, Parque Villa Lobos in São Paulo, Brazil, since 2001. All the Brazilia ...

from 2001 until 2014 and in 2025 will start to host the SP Open.

Location

The park is located the

Alto de Pinheiros The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses ...

district to the west of the centre of São Paulo.

History

In the late 1980s the area where the park is now located was used as a rubbish tip. The western area was used by the Companhia de Entrepostos e Armazéns Gerais do Estado de São Paulo (Company of Warehouses and General Warehouses of the State of São Paulo, CEAGESP) for their garbage disposal, and around 80 families were

scavenging Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding be ...

for food and packaging there. The central part was used as a waste dump for

civil construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

, and the eastern part was used to hold

dredged material Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing dams ...

from the Pinheiros river. The first studies to turn the area into a park were carried out in 1987 as part of the

centenary A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

's birth. State decrees allocated to create the park, dedicated to leisure, culture and sport. The

Departamento de Águas e Energia Elétrica A ' () is a administrative division, country subdivision in several Latin America, Latin American countries, mostly as top-level subnational divisions (except in Argentina). It is usually simply translated as "Department (administrative division), d ...

(Department of Water and Electric Power, DAEE) started to clear the site in 1989, removing the families that were living there, and of debris that was larger than diameter. The site was landscaped by moving of earth. The Boaçava creek, which runs through the site, was

channelized Channelized in a telecommunications environment means that the line that communications have been transmitted over contains more than one message thread, separated in some fashion. Typical channelization methods include packetizing, frequency- ...

. The new park was designed by Décio Tozzi, with a "music city" theme. The administration of the park was changed in January 2004 to the Secretaria do Meio Ambiente (State Department of Environment, SMA) of São Paulo state, with emergency maintenance carried out at the park in the same year, and the possibility of extending the park was started to be investigated. In 2011 plans were announced to expand the park by 20% by incorporating a area currently used for the construction of Line 4 of the São Paulo Metro. Around 5,000 people visit the park each day during the week, around 20,000 people during weekends, and around 30,000 people during holidays.

Features

Environment

The park has a bird nursery, musical island, playgrounds, and around 37,000 trees native to the Atlantic Forest. Parts of the park have audio playback of sounds by Heitor Villa-Lobos. It was one of the first accessible parks in the city. The "Circuito das Árvores" is a -long elevated walkway through trees at heights up to .

Buildings

There are a number of buildings in the park including: * Exhibition building for Ballet and Music Schools, including instrument manufacture and repair workshops * Villa Ambiental, an environmental education space * Open

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (American English, U.S. English: amphitheater) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ('), meani ...

with 750 seats * Auditoriums * Shops * Center of Musical Coexistence * Park administration headquarters * 1st Company of the 23rd

Military Police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. Not to be confused with civilian police, who are legally part of the civilian populace. In wartime operations, the military police may supp ...

Battalion headquarters, which was in a temporary building until 1999 when a new headquarters was constructed. * Orquidário

Ruth Cardoso Ruth Vilaça Correia Leite Cardoso Ordem do Infante D. Henrique, GCIH (19 September 1930 – 24 June 2008) was a Brazilian anthropologist and a member of the faculty of philosophy, letters and human sciences at the University of São Paulo ( ...

, holding

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

s. * Villa-Lobos Park Library, covering , with a

lending library A lending library is a library from which books and other media are lent out. The major classifications are endowed libraries, institutional libraries (the most diverse), public libraries, and subscription libraries. It may also refer to a librar ...

, study areas, and a cultural program.

Sports facilities

The park has a bike path, a jogging track, hiking trails, football fields,

street basketball Streetball (or street basketball) is a variation of basketball, typically played on outdoor courts and featuring significantly less formal structure and enforcement of the game's rules. As such, its format is more conducive to allowing players ...

courts, tennis courts, and gym equipment.

References

{{Visitor attractions in São Paulo Parks in São Paulo Tourist attractions in São Paulo (state)