Praça Portugal, Fortaleza

Praça Portugal is a square in the Aldeota neighborhood of Fortaleza created in 1947 by the architect and landscape designer Maria Clara Nogueira Paes. It was definitively inaugurated in 1968 and has undergone several renovations. The square is circular in shape and is in the middle of the intersection between Dom Luís and Desembargador Moreira Avenues. Around it there are many stores in "open mall" shopping centers and the Aldeota shopping center. During the end of the year a giant Christmas tree is set up.

Portugal Square was considered one of the best square projects in Brazil, and was featured publication in the Brazilian Landscaping Picture/USP School of Architecture and Urbanism Edition.

Between the years 1999 and 2000 the square gains new life with the remarkable presence of young Japanese culture fans making the square the otakus' corner.

In 2014 a project emerges from the Fortaleza City Hall for the replacement of the square by 4 others that would be at the ends of the quadrilateral that comprises the space, instead of in the center as it is today. The central part, in turn, would give way to a traffic light intersection.

This project was the target of protests by the population, who did not accept the demolition of the square. A project was then carried out to revitalize the four small squares around Praça Portugal, as well as paving the traffic circle at Praça Portugal.