National Library and Municipal Theater

Atrium in the National Library

Today after work Josh and I wandered around a little in downtown Rio and found two gorgeous buildings that are jam-packed with history and culture. We first visited a Biblioteca Nactional (National Library), which is the largest library in Latin America. The original collection was brought to Brazil in 1810 after the royal family moved here from Portugal to escape Napoleon's invasion. The library itself was built between 1905 and 1910 and contains over 10 million volumes. As an interesting factoid, Brazilian law mandates that for every book published one copy be sent to the National Library. I guess that's one way to increase the size of your collection.

Municipal Theater

The second building we visited was right across the street (and we actually found it completely by accident): o Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro (the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Theater). It was a fascinating collection of eclectic arcitecture, from Baroque to Classical to .... Persian and Babylonian. They recently finished some serious restoration that took over 2 years, and the inside has tons of marble and inlaid gold. Josh and I are hoping to go see some kind of performance here, but I imagine it will be extremely expensive. Anyway, I thought that was a pretty good day, especially for not really knowing our way around Rio!