Biblioteca Nacional Review

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Biblioteca Nacional

  • Address: Av. Rio Branco 219, Centro, Rio de Janeiro
  • Phone: 021/2262-8255; 021/2220-9484
  • www.bn.br

Fodor's Review:

Corinthian columns adorn the neoclassical National Library (built between 1905 and 1908), the first such establishment in Latin America. Its original archives were brought to Brazil by King João VI in 1808. Today it contains roughly 13 million books, including two 15th-century printed Bibles, and manuscript New Testaments from the 11th and 12th centuries; first-edition Mozart scores as well as scores by Carlos Gomes (who adapted the José de Alencar novel about Brazil's Indians, O Guarani, into an opera of the same name); books that belonged to Empress Teresa Christina; and many other manuscripts, prints, and drawings. Tours are available in English.

  • Cost: Tours R$2
  • Open: By guided tour only, weekdays at 11, 1, and 3
  • Metrô: Cinelândia
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