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[Vince Keegan]

The Real Gabinete Português de Leitura (in English: Royal Portuguese Reading
Room) has the largest and most valuable literary of Portuguese outside Portugal.
Constructed between 1880 and 1887, it has more than 350,000 volumes in a
library, fully computerized, which brings together rare books from the 16th,
17th and 18th. The library receives a copy of Portugal for each of the works
published in the country according to its status of “legal deposit”. Its
incredible architecture beauty and its rich collection transport you to the 19th
century when you visit this library in Rio de Janeiro.

[Vince Keegan]

The current headquarters building has the neomanuelino style that evokes the
exuberant Gothic-Renaissance at the time of the Portuguese Discoveries. The
facade, inspired by the Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon, was carved in limestone
in Lisbon and brought by ship to Rio. The statues and medallions sculptured in
the entrance portray distinguished Portuguese, including Pedro Álvares Cabral,
Luís de Camões and Vasco da Gama, as the eternal guardians of the human
knowledge.

[Vince Keegan]

The interior also follows the neomanuelino style in the ornamental doors, wooden
shelves for books and commemorative memorials. The beautiful chandelier and
skylight structure of iron in the roof of the Reading Room and the library
painting enrich even more its interior. The lounge also has a beautiful monument
of silver, ivory and marble (the Altar da Pátria – Altar of the Fatherland), 1.7
meters tall, which celebrates the time of discovery.

[Vince Keegan]

[Vince Keegan]

[Vince Keegan]

The walls of the Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura. The library holds the
largest collection of Portuguese titles outside of Portugal.

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