The Pátio do Colégio is where São Paulo began, on a low ridge between two streams, when Portuguese Jesuits built a small school and mission here in 1554. The current whitewashed church and college are a 1979 reconstruction in the Portuguese colonial style — the original 16th-century building was demolished in 1896 — but the small museum inside holds genuine relics, including remnants of the original mud walls and Anchieta's personal items.
The interior courtyard and the small adjoining museum are quiet, calm, and the most direct sense the modern city offers of its 16th-century origins. Combine with the Catedral da Sé one block south and the Mosteiro de São Bento five minutes north.