Coffee-era houses
19th-century mansions.
Yurai123 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Yurai123 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Yurai123 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Yurai123 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Yurai123 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Yurai123 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Yurai123 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Bananal is a small town at the far eastern tip of São Paulo state, near the Rio de Janeiro border. Founded around 1780, it became one of the richest coffee centres of the Paraíba Valley in the nineteenth century, and its old core still preserves the look of that era. The historic centre was listed as state heritage in 1991 and holds some sixty-five buildings from the coffee years, built of rammed earth and wattle-and-daub along the street line. They include the main church of Bom Jesus do Livramento (1780, rebuilt in 1810), the Sobrado da Matriz (1811), the Hotel Brasil (1847), the mansion of Manuel de Aguiar Vallim (1855), which now houses the town hall, and the old courthouse (1870). The wealthiest houses had painted interior walls and wooden window frames in varied designs. An hour or two is enough to walk the square and the surrounding streets, and the town is a good base for the historic coffee farms around it.
19th-century mansions.
Heart of town.
Historic estates nearby.
Town centre, Paraíba Valley, São Paulo state
At the far eastern tip of São Paulo state near the Rio de Janeiro border, closer to Rio than to São Paulo city.