Antiga Fábrica da Companhia Antarctica Paulista is a former brewery complex in the Mooca district of São Paulo, Brazil. The site was originally built in 1892 as the Fábrica de Cervejaria Bavária, before later becoming associated with Companhia Antarctica Paulista, one of Brazil’s most important beverage companies. During the twentieth century, the complex became part of São Paulo’s industrial landscape and helped define Mooca as one of the city’s major working-class and manufacturing districts. With its large brick structures, tall windows, industrial halls and aged architectural details, the former brewery remains one of the most striking remnants of São Paulo’s beer-making history.
The brewery has been inactive since 1995, leaving behind a vast industrial site marked by decay, memory and architectural grandeur. A fire damaged parts of the complex in 2003, and the buildings have since stood as a dramatic example of abandoned industrial heritage in the city. In 2016, the complex was protected as part of São Paulo’s historic heritage by Conpresp, the municipal preservation council. Its mixture of monumental scale, worn surfaces and nineteenth-century industrial character has made it a visually powerful location, somewhere between ruin, factory and cathedral-like space.
In 2025, the old Antarctica brewery was used as the filming location for Bruce Dickinson’s music video for the reimagined version of “Tears of the Dragon”. The video was shot in São Paulo in September 2025, shortly after Dickinson’s appearance at The Town Festival. Directed by Leo Liberti and Antoine de Montremy, the video uses the abandoned brewery as a dramatic setting for the song’s expanded orchestral version. Dickinson described the location as an enormous old-school brewery, almost like a Renaissance building, which matches the atmosphere of the former Antarctica complex.
The video features Dickinson with his House Band of Hell, joined by the Almai orchestra conducted by Antonio Teoli. The orchestra, which also appears on the studio re-recording, is presented with a slightly zombified look, adding a gothic and theatrical quality to the performance. A ballet dancer also appears in the video, interpreting the emotional tone of the song through movement. Against the decaying architecture of the old brewery, the result is a visual contrast between abandonment and performance, industrial ruin and orchestral drama.
“Tears of the Dragon” was originally released on Bruce Dickinson’s 1994 solo album “Balls to Picasso”. The new version appears on “More Balls to Picasso”, a reimagined version of the album that gave Dickinson the chance to revisit the material with a heavier, fuller and more cinematic sound. The São Paulo video turns the former brewery into more than a backdrop: the scale, emptiness and aged beauty of the building become part of the song’s atmosphere, giving the reworked ballad a setting that feels both haunted and monumental.
ADDRESS:
Mooca District, São Paulo – State of São Paulo, 03101-001, Brazil
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