BELÉM - Brazil Sensational

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• published: 07 Nov 2010
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Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station and fringed by freshwater beaches. Belém is also known as the Metropolis of the Brazilian Amazon region or the Cidade das Mangueiras (city of mango trees) due to the vast number of those trees found in the city. Brazilians often refer to the city as Belém do Pará ("Belém of Pará") rather than just Belém so as to differentiate it from the biblical Bethlehem in the West Bank (Palestinian territories) and also from Belém in Portugal. Belém has a modern appearance with tree-lined streets, several plazas and public gardens, and many noteworthy buildings. In many ways, Belém's colonial architecture reflects the seventeenth century architecture of Lisbon in Portugal. Neoclassical architecture is also present in buildings such as the Theatro da Paz, built in 1874. Many of the buildings at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century also echo French architecture. Belém began with the narrow streets of the Cidade Velha (Old City), a district which still preserves structures that the Portuguese colonials built here, places like Forte do Castelo, a fort built to defend the region against French, Dutch and British colonization attempts, and one of the first structures in the capital. The Ver-o-pêso market is the biggest open market in Latin America where you can find everything, from the most exotic fruit, to the scented baths. Belém is really all that and much more! It is a city of people a warm, hospitable and very happy! The local amerindian culture extracts colors, scents, flavors and native tastes from the nature for a rich and exotic cuisine, adding up to the most authentic of regional cuisines: Tacacá, Maniçoba, Cupuaçu, Tucupi, Pirarucu, Jambú... "One who goes to Pará, stops here; one who drinks açaí, stays here!"