Although made official in the 20th century, the neighborhood began to appear shortly after the city was founded.
Here on São Paulo Secreto, you’ve already learned the facts behind the founding of neighborhoods such as Sé, Liberdade and São Mateus. Now we’re talking about Cambuci.
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Tucked away between Mooca, Vila Mariana and Ipiranga, the neighborhood was made official just over a century ago, but its history began long before that.
The region began to be explored shortly after the foundation of São Paulo (then called São Paulo de Piratininga), in 1554. At that time, what is now known as Cambuci was nothing more than a trail through which people had to pass in order to reach the Caminho do Mar and, ultimately, the city of Santos.
Around 1850, the growing movement in the region meant that farms, ranches and even small businesses sprang up around the main trails. In 1870, a resident had the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes built, which today is called the Church of Our Lady of Glory.
Although many people had lived there for centuries, the Cambuci neighborhood only officially came into being in 1906. As a result, land was plotted and streets began to appear.
After that, the region followed São Paulo’s industrialization process and began to receive many factories, just like the neighbouring Mooca and Ipiranga districts. This led to many workers, including Italian and Syrian-Lebanese immigrants, moving there.
The factories, however, began to abandon the area from the 1970s onwards. Today, Cambuci can be considered a service district, with a good number of shops lining its main streets.