Savassi is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It is located at the Central-South zone city district. Savassi is known for having a large number of bars, pubs, clubs, cafés, bistros, diners, restaurants,

nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, c ...

and shopping commerce. The region is regarded as one of the most prestigious and sought-after areas in Belo Horizonte.

History

Savassi takes its name from an Italian family, which owned a bakery in the neighborhood's main square, by that time known by its original name, Praça Diogo de Vasconcelos. In the mid-1930s the bakery was named after the family's last name. Then, the square got known as Savassi, and later the entire region was known as well. After that Mayor made Savassi a neighbourhood and not more a Square. Savassi Bakery was the point to people to meet and eat delicious breads and pastries. For long it was a region inside Funcionários neighborhood. In 2006, it was dismembered by the Town House before the meeting of the

Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and serving as the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribb ...

, which was to happen that same year in the city.Now Funcionários is a bit further down south and Savassi is the neighbourhood where is Patio Savassi up to Minas Tênis Clube.

Main venues

Currently, Savassi is bounded south by the Contorno Avenue, where is located one of the trendiest and most

upscale shopping In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to n ...

malls in the city, the Pátio Savassi; east, by the Afonso Pena Avenue; north by Brasil Avenue; northwest by the

Praça da Liberdade Praça da Liberdade (Liberty Square) is a principal square in the Savassi neighborhood in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Image:Praçadaliberdade.JPG, The square. Image:Semáforo.JPG, Street sign in the square Image:Secretari ...

(''Liberty Square''); west by Rua da Bahia. Savassi is neighbors with some of the most affluent areas of

, like Funcionários, at the northeast; Boa Viagem, at the north;

Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Château ...

, the wealthiest and most expensive residential district in the city, at the west; and Santo Antônio, São Pedro, Carmo and Cruzeiro, at the southern border. Some major streets in Savassi are: the Afonso Pena Avenue, Getúlio Vargas Avenue, Cristóvão Colombo Avenue, Brasil Avenue, Rua da Bahia and Contorno Avenue. The neighborhood is a CRECI A List area in Belo Horizonte, and has one of the most expensive square-feet in town. It is home to many of the most prestigious and selective private schools in the city, most of them Catholic Schools, like the Colégio Santo Antônio, Colégio Sagrado Coração (''Sacred-Heart School''), Colégio Marista São José, Colégio Padre Machado, and others. There is also the Architecture School of

UFMG The Federal University of Minas Gerais ( pt, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a sim ...

, the Social Sciences School of PUC-Minas and the campuses of many other top-rated Brazilian universities and colleges. The elite comes to Savassi to shop, to attend the several art galleries, exhibitions, fairs and public parties; to sit at the ever-full cafés and bars; dance at the most-wanted private parties and clubs; to see and to be seen. The area is also known for being the most straightforward in town, being home for every single type of culture. Hipsters, emo and rockers are around in large numbers. The

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...

in the neighborhood is one of the highest in Southeast Brazil, as well as its

per-capita income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two equal groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of ...

, and

Gross Enrolment Ratio Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) or Gross Enrolment Index (GEI) is a statistical measure used in the education sector, and formerly by the UN in its Education Index, to determine the number of students enrolled in school at several different grade level ...

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline Neighbourhoods in Belo Horizonte