Paris Square
A garden square modeled on Paris, raised in Glória in 1926 and made over long after the subway plowed through it.
Mayor Antônio Prado Júnior's administration raised this square on reclaimed land in 1926, following a design from French planner Alfred Agache. Agache borrowed the geometry of a Parisian garden for the plan, filling the grounds with tall almond trees plus assorted statuary and artwork.
Its footprint once ran from Rio Branco and Beira Mar avenues clear to Glória Street, before city planners trimmed it back to make room for Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca Square.
Subway builders leveled the site outright, but a 1992 rebuild brought back railings meant to keep the grounds intact. Local runners and walkers still favor its packed-dirt track, treating the square as a training loop as much as a place to admire.
Guests staying in Lapa can cover that distance on foot to take in the almond canopy and statues firsthand, tracing the same garden lines Agache sketched nearly a hundred years back.
Reaching Paris Square from Lapa takes about 15 minutes on foot, plenty of time to study the railings and the packed-dirt paths up close.
Stay nearby
Stay at Mural da Lapa; Paris Square is about 15 minutes on foot.