The Palace of Industries (Palácio das Indústrias), São Paulo, Brazil

The Palace of Industries (Palácio das Indústrias) is a historic building located in the center of the Brazilian town of São Paulo.  The Palace was designed in the eclectic style and was built over 13 years (1911-1924).

The Palace of Industries was initially conceived as a permanent space for agricultural and industrial exhibitions but several institutions were housed there.  One of them, since the year of its inauguration, was Radio Educator Paulista 5, the first São Paulo radio station (now Radio Gazeta).

In 1992, the Palace became the seat of city government.  At the time of this change, the creation of an annex building was proposed, in order to expand the facilities of the town hall and at the same time serve as a focus for a revitalization of the surrounding area.  Unfortunately this was never implemented.

The Palace building housed the City Hall of São Paulo until the year 2004.  In the past, the building was the headquarters of the Legislative Assembly from 1947 to 1968 and also housed the Department of Public Safety.

Since March  2009 the Palace building has returned to its original purpose and it now houses the Weathervane Museum , a museum dedicated to science.

 

I received this very nice postcard from Renata (31 March 2014) Swap-bot.