Ricardo Brennand Institute
Mock-Tudor castle in Recife holding the world's largest group of Frans Post paintings and a vast arms collection.
The institute grew out of the private collection of the Pernambuco industrialist Ricardo Brennand and opened to the public in 2002. Its centrepiece is the Castelo São João, a Tudor-revival castle with a drawbridge, armorial reliefs and a Gothic altarpiece imported from Europe, set in landscaped grounds with lakes and an avenue of imperial palms. The complex covers some 77,000 square metres and also contains a picture gallery, a library of more than 60,000 volumes, an auditorium and temporary exhibition halls.
The arms collection runs to nearly 3,000 pieces of European and Asian weaponry and armour from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, among the largest such holdings anywhere. The painting galleries are built around Dutch Brazil, with the world's largest assembly of works by Frans Post, alongside pictures by Albert Eckhout and nineteenth-century Brazilian artists. Tapestries from Aubusson and the Gobelins, Portuguese furniture and sculpture by Rodin and Botero are shown across the site and in the gardens.
Highlights
- Largest single collection of paintings by Frans Post
- Nearly 3,000 arms and pieces of armour from Europe and Asia
- Tudor-revival Castelo São João with drawbridge and moat
- Sculpture garden with works by Rodin and Botero
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