The old station
The march's base.
Felipe P — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Eugenio Hansen, OFS — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Eugenio Hansen, OFS — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Eugenio Hansen, OFS — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Eugenio Hansen, OFS — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Eugenio Hansen, OFS — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Prestes Column Memorial is a museum in Santo Ângelo, in the Missions region, housed since 1996 in the old railway station. It tells the story of the Prestes Column, the rebel military march led by Luís Carlos Prestes that set out from the city in October 1924 and covered some twenty-five thousand kilometres across Brazil over two years and three months. The station building is said to have served as headquarters for Prestes and his comrades while they planned the march. The station closed in 1969, and the building became a museum through a design donated by the famous architect Oscar Niemeyer, a close friend of Prestes, who also designed a nearby obelisk tracing the column's full route. Alongside documents and photographs, the site includes a railway museum with two carriages built in Santa Maria, and a garden with the sculpture «A Coluna Invicta». The building has been listed by the city since 1984 and by the state since 2013.
The march's base.
The column's route.
Built in Santa Maria.
Old railway station, Santo Ângelo, Rio Grande do Sul
About fifty kilometres; both fit in one day.