PRAÇA DA ESTAÇÃO
Square in front of the Metrô central station, part of which has been converted into the Museum of Arts and Offices, still in operation.
This square is located in front of the central station of the Metrô of Belo Horizonte, a part of which is now transformed into the Museum of Arts and Offices (MAO), and the other still in operation. The station serves the city of Vitória, but also line 1 of the Belo Horizonte subway, which leads to Santa Teresa, the bohemian district of Belo Horizonte (as in Rio).
The place is majestic. The current building of the station was inaugurated in 1922. It was built in an eclectic style by the architect Luiz Olivieri, to give this effervescent capital a station that would match its development. It was the gateway to the new capital of Minas Gerais in the 19th century and reflects the wealth of the region at that time. The city's first clock was installed in the tower built in the original station, when the square began to be urbanized in 1904, and, like the Praça da Liberdade, the park was redesigned in a French style in the 1920s. Three marble statues can be admired here.
In the square, the Monumento a Terra Mineira is a statue made of bronze and granite in 1930 by the Italian sculptor Giulio Starace. It refers to important events in the history of the region with a statue of a man holding a flag at the top.
This square is often the scene of popular events. Modern agora, poets, artists, and more broadly the civil society, meet there to exchange dreams, ideas and conception of life.