Largo de São Sebastião

Wave-patterned square in front of the Teatro Amazonas

The Largo de São Sebastião is the small but elegant square in front of the Teatro Amazonas. The pretty white-and-yellow Igreja de São Sebastião (1888) sits on one side, while the centre is occupied by the Monumento à Abertura dos Portos (1900) — four bronze figures representing the Amazon and the continents of trade. Cafes and souvenir stalls line the edges.

This is where Manaus comes after dark on warm evenings: street performers, ice-cream vendors, families and the occasional outdoor concert. The black-and-white wave paving is one of the most photographed surfaces in the city.

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A story
The black-and-white wave-pattern paving of the square is the same Portuguese pavement laid in Lisbon's Rossio in the 1840s — and reused along Copacabana beach in Rio in 1970 by Burle Marx. The pattern is sometimes said to symbolise the meeting of the dark Rio Negro and the lighter Solimões.