Pátio do Colégio

Pateo do Collegio also written as Patio do Colegio, is the name given to the historical Jesuit church and school in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The name is also used to refer to the square in front of the church. The Pateo do Collegio marks the site were the city was founded in 1554.

The city of Sao Paulo has its beginnings in a mission established by Jesuits Manuel da Nobrega, Jose de Anchieta and others in the Brazilian hinterland. The village - then called Sao Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga - was founded on a plateau between two rivers, the Tamanduateí and the Anhangabau, and was linked to the coastal village of Sao Vicente by a precarious path in the rainforest.

The date that marks the beginning of Sao Paulo is January 25, 1554, when the priests celebrated the inaugural mass of the Jesuit school. Initially, the church building was a modest hut covered with palm leaves or straw. In 1556, under father Afonso Brás, new buildings of the school and church were finished using taipa de pilao (rammed earth), a more solid technique. These buildings would be the centre of spiritual and educational life in the settlement in the next couple of centuries.