Brazil - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 235

interiors is to be found two blocks west,
however, at the Real Gabinete Português
de Leitura (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm), dating
from 1887 and containing a library
with 350,000 leather-bound volumes.
At Saara's western end you come upon a
surprisingly peaceful park, the Campo de
Santana , where Emperor Dom Pedro I
proclaimed Brazil's independence from
Portugal in 1822 - now complete with
ponds, strutting peacocks and scuttling
agoutis (avoid outside of working hours).

Rio's symphony orchestra and guest ballet
schools and singers from across the globe.
Across the road is the superb Museu
Nacional das Belas Artes (Tues-Fri
10am-6pm, Sat & Sun noon-5pm;
R$6, Sun free), a grandiose construction
imitating the Louvre in Paris. The
European collection includes Boudin,
Taunay and Frans Post, but the painting
and sculpture by all the modern Brazilian
masters are of much greater interest.
Neighbouring, the Biblioteca Nacional
(guided tours Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat
9am-3pm) is also noteworthy, for the
high Art Nouveau ceilings of its reading
rooms, and its stairway decorated by
important artists like Visconti, Amoedo
and Bernadelli. Ten minutes' walk
southeast, at the edge of the Parque do
Flamengo, is the Museu de Arte Moderna
(Tues-Sun noon-6pm; R$6), which
contains a range of twentieth-century
Brazilian art. Start upstairs with the
pieces from the 1920s.

Around the Nova Catedral
To the southwest of the Largo da Carioca,
the unmistakeable form of the Nova
Catedral Metropolitana (daily 7.30am-
6pm) rises up like some futuristic tepee,
75m high and with a capacity of 20,000.
Built between 1964 and 1976, it's an
impressive piece of modern architecture,
resembling the blunt-topped Mayan
pyramids of Mexico. It feels vast inside,
its remarkable sense of space enhanced by
the absence of supporting columns and
four huge stained-glass windows, each
measuring 20m by 60m. Over the road
is the bizarre Cubist-style headquarters
of Petrobrás , the state oil company.
Immediately behind it is the station
(hopefully due to reopen in 2014) for
bondes (trams) up to Santa Teresa.

3

Lapa
Immediately southwest of Cinelândia is
the bairro of Lapa , a gracefully decaying
neighbourhood and the beating heart of
Rio's samba and nightlife scenes (see
p.252). Its Passeio Público park (daily
7.30am-9pm) was opened in 1783 and is
now a little past its best, but this green
oasis still charms - with busts of famous
figures from the city's history by Mestre
Valentim. Lapa's most recognizable feature
is the eighteenth-century aqueduct known
as the Arcos da Lapa . Built to a Roman
design and consisting of 42 wide arches,
in its heyday it carried water from the
Rio Carioca to the thirsty citizens of the
city, though more recently bondes (trams)
passed across on their way up to Santa
Teresa. Each Friday night thousands of
people throng the surrounding streets.
Just off Rua Joaquim da Silva, a remark-
able ascending tiled mosaic lines the
Escadaria Selarón stairway into Santa
Teresa, a feat of obsession by the late
Chilean artist, Selarón.

Cinelândia: Praça Floriano
At the southern end of Avenida Rio
Branco, the dead-straight boulevard that
cuts through the centre from north to
south, you reach the area known as
Cinelândia (Metrô Cinelândia), named for
long-gone 1930s movie houses. At the
centre of impressive square Praça Floriano
is a bust of Getúlio Vargas , still anony-
mously decorated with flowers on the
anniversary of the former dictator's
birthday, March 19. At the northern end
is the newly renovated Theatro Municipal
(guided tours in English Tues-Sat 1pm and
3pm; phone to confirm T 21 2332 9220),
modelled on the Paris Opera Garnier - all
granite, marble and bronze, with a foyer
decorated in Louis XV-style white and
gold with green onyx handrails. If you can,
come to a performance here (see W www
.theatromunicipal.rj.gov.br) featuring

Santa Teresa
Just above Lapa to the southwest is Santa
Teresa , a leafy bairro of labyrinthine,