Opened in April 1940 by Getúlio Vargas, the Pacaembu facade recalls the style of fascist architecture in Italy
In this last week of the year, walking with an Italian friend, a journalist, through Praça Charles Miler, in São Paulo, near Pacaembu, I was warned by him with a very intriguing question:
“Did you know that the architecture of the facade and the font (Paulo Machado de Carvalho, the official name of the stadium) sadly refer to a style used during fascism by the dictator Benito Mussolini?”, he asked.
No! I had no idea, but I searched on Google and found that Pacaembu is, in fact, an example of fascist architecture. The stadium was designed and built by architects Ricardo Severo and Arnaldo Vilares, inaugurated on April 27, 1940, in the presence of the then president of the Republic, Getúlio Vargas, accompanied by intervenor Ademar de Barros and mayor Prestes Maia.
At that time, Getúlio Vargas’ Brazil had not yet decided whether to support the Axis or the Allies. The architecture was preserved, according to the original design by Werner March, an architect close to Hitler. In the images below, you can see the similarities with Pacaembu.
Fascism in Italy was a period in which the country was governed by a conservative, radical and far-right political party from 1922 to 1943, although it remained in power, in some form, until 1945.
Led by Benito Mussolini, fascism took advantage of the uncertain scenario in which Italy lived after the First World War. As my Italian friend emphasized, it was a very sad period, because the Mussolini government used violence to achieve its objectives and grew considerably by violating socialists in Europe.
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It is impossible not to notice how impactful this memory was for an Italian who was just walking around Higienópoles and Pacaembu, two of the most traditional neighborhoods in the city of São Paulo.
In time: Benito Mussolini was executed at the end of World War II.
STILL IN TIME…
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The Pacaembu stadium, under construction since 2021, is officially expected to be reopened in less than a month, on January 25, 2024, to host the São Paulo Junior Football Cup final. However, images taken by R7 – partner of Brasilia newspaper – this Tuesday (26), they question whether the stadium is capable of hosting an event in the coming weeks
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