Sightseeing and Entertainment

The vibrant Brazilian city of Sao Paulo is the world's third largest city and is quickly rising to become the country's cultural centre. On the surface Sao Paulo might be ugly, grey and polluted, but within it you can find a huge selection of tourist attractions if you know where to look. Indisputably a vibrant and energetic place, Sao Paulo can be intimidating, but tourists will find it is well worth taking the effort to get to know it and to visit some of its many attractions.

Source: World Guides

The Mindlin Library at the University of São Paulo

Biblioteca Brasiliana Guita e José Mindlin, the Guita and José Mindlin Brasiliana Library, is a unit at the Pró-reitoria de Cultura e Extensão Universitária (the Dean of Culture and University Extension) of the University of São Paulo. It was instituted in January 2005 in order to house the Brasiliana collection gathered over eighty years by the world renowned Brazilian bibliophile José Mindlin and his wife Guita, which had been donated by the Mindlins to the University of São Paulo (USP), in a gesture of great generosity. The Mindlins' Brasiliana, with around 17.000 titles or 40.000 volumes, comprises a very expressive variety of books, prints and manuscripts, and is considered the most important library of this kind ever formed by a private collector.

Instituto Butantan (Butantan Institute)

Address: Avenida Vital Brazil 1500, Butantã, São Paulo, Brazil.

One of the city's most notable attractions is home to an incredible venom farm, where snakes poison is used to make antidotes to spider and snake bites. As well as the serpentarium (snake pit), the monkey house is the other best loved part of the zoo. Highly suitable for all the family, the Instituto Butantan is close to the campus of the city's university.

Open hours: Wednesday to Sunday - 09:00 to 16:30
Admission: charge, free for students, children under seven and seniors