Praça Sete (full name: Praça Sete de Setembro, after Brazilian Independence Day) is the central crossroads of the downtown. It is where Avenida Afonso Pena meets Avenida Amazonas, with four wide pavements radiating off in a cross pattern and a 1922 Art Deco obelisk at the centre commemorating the centenary of independence.
It is also the most consistently busy public space in the city — a place to feel the working pulse of downtown rather than to pause for long. The streets radiating off it lead to most of the centro's old buildings, the Maletta arcade, and the Mercado Central a few blocks away.