Júlio Prestes is a railway station on Viabilidade Line 8-Diamond, located in the district of Santa Cecília in São Paulo. This historic station was named after former Governor of São Paulo and former President-elect of Brazil, Júlio Prestes. Currently, the station attends solely the Line 8-Diamond.
The station is the head workplace of the State Secretariat of Culture of São Paulo and, starting from 1999, the concert house for the São Paulo Symphonic Orchestra (Osesp), Sala São Paulo.In Praça Júlio Prestes, it is possible to see the bronze statue of Alfredo Maia and the iron abstract statue of Emanoel Araújo.
Impact on the Urban Fabric
The original station was opened on 10 July 1872 by Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana, which was once one of the most essential railways in Brazil, and it was titled São Paulo Station. Its prime function was to transport coffee bean baggage from southwest and western São Paulo and northern Paraná to the capital. The historic station was close to Luz Station, which facilitated the coffee transportation for São Paulo Railway, the sole railway that had a route from São Paulo to Santos. The station linked São Paulo to Piracicaba, Santos and Presidente Epitácio, on the border with Mato Grosso do Sul. After getting prosperous with coffee transportation, it was decided to construct a new and bigger station. The 2nd and current station were projected by Cristiano Stockler das Neves and Samuel das Neves in 1925, however, the building was finished only in 1938, due to the monetary instability, which affected nearly all the capitalist international locations at the time, brought on by the Great Depression.
Social and political importance of royal heritage
Even far from being completed, at the end of the development of the section of the project (platform area), the boarding started to work in this station.
With 25,000 square metres (270,000 sq ft), the station was stimulated in the New York terminals Grand Central and Pennsylvania and projected via architects Cristiano Stockler das Neves and Samuel das Neves. In 1927, the architecture was awarded in the 3rd Panamerican Architects Congress and has features such as concrete structure and brick masonry. Columns and worked liners marked the Louis XVI style of construction. Besides that, the high right-foot gave the station a sensation of opulence and breadth, with sculptures in the clock tower and arcs in the windows. The platform of the station was constructed with a steel structure coming from the zeppelin hangar. In the interior of the station, there is a traditional French garden with 960 rectangular metres (10,300 sq ft), in the original project the space would be a hall surrounded by columns in Corinthian style and covered by stained glasses – however the lack of money made unviable the majestic hall.
Tram and train use declined after the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 and the cease of the coffee monoculture. By 1938 the amplification of the number of personal cars and inter-municipal and interstate bus train use further declined which resulted in the financial disaster of the Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana. In 1951, the station was renamed after the former President of the State of São Paulo, Júlio Prestes.
The station was deserted a little while later. In the 1990s, Governor Mário Covas, attending a request of the maestro of the São Paulo Symphonic Orchestra, John Neschling, decided to repair the station in a way that the area where the gardens have been located could be transformed into a concert room, Sala São Paulo. The technical complexity to transform the station into a concert room required the collaboration of a massive team. It was once needed to analyse the standards for the transformation and restoration of the building, keeping the existing historical area and discussing architectural, material, structural and technical questions, required for the consolidation of a concert room according to the necessities of acoustic and environmental isolations.
Besides the concert room, the station is additionally used for public transportation. Originally a beginning point for FEPASA South and West lines presently attends the CPTM Line 8-Diamond trains, which have Itapevi and Amador Bueno as terminus stations. The station is additionally the head office for the São Paulo State Secretariat of Culture.
At the request of CPTM, CONDEPHAAT permitted a project of internal connection between Júlio Prestes and Luz stations, with the development of a tunnel or Passarella of about 200 metres (660 ft), with the goal relieve the demand on Luz station, which has two lines that connect with the Metro, while Júlio Prestes is terminus solely for Line 8-Diamond.
Tourism
Júlio Prestes Station is a popular tourist attraction in São Paulo because of its architecture and historical location. The locale consists of Pinacoteca, the place Walter Way Library can be found; the Resistance Memorial, which has records from the Military Regime; and the Museum of the Portuguese Language, which caught fire in December 2015. Outside the station in Praça Júlio Prestes is the bronze statue of Alfredo Maia, made by using the sculptor Amadeu Zani.
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BAlio_Prestes_(CPTM)
