Royal Portuguese Reading Room (Real Gabinete Português de Leitura)
Neo-Manueline library of 1887 in central Rio, with a galleried reading room of carved jacaranda.
Founded in 1837 by a group of Portuguese emigrants, the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura moved into its own building on Rua Luís de Camões between 1880 and 1887. The Portuguese architect Rafael da Silva e Castro gave it an exuberant neo-Manueline front of limestone shipped from Lisbon, crowded with twisted columns, tracery and statues of Camões, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral and Prince Henry the Navigator. It was inaugurated in September 1887 in the presence of Emperor Pedro II.
The reading room behind the façade rises through three tiers of galleries in carved jacaranda wood, lit from above by an iron-and-glass lantern set with the Portuguese arms in stained glass; a large chandelier hangs at the centre. The library holds some 350,000 volumes, including rare sixteenth-century editions and one of the largest collections of Portuguese-language works outside Portugal. It remains a working library and research centre as well as a much-visited interior.
Highlights
- Neo-Manueline façade in Lisbon limestone, with statues of Portuguese navigators
- Galleried reading room in carved jacaranda, on three levels
- Iron-and-glass roof lantern with the Portuguese arms in stained glass
- About 350,000 volumes, including rare sixteenth-century editions
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