Fodor's Expert Review Praça da República

In the heart of Rio Antigo, the city's original cultural and political meeting point of the 17th century was given a new lease on life by landscape architect Burle Marx in the 1930s, and now features rows of Imperial palms and a hundred-year-old Baobab tree among the elaborate 19th- and 20th-century architecture. Highlights include the Teatro Santa Isabel (St. Isabel Theater, 1850); the Palácio do Campo das Princesas, also known as the Palácio do Governo (Government House, 1841); and the Palácio da Justiça (Court House, 1930).