Royal Portuguese Reading Room

Take a good look at this façade: with its pinnacles and stone lacework, it seems to have been shipped over from Lisbon. In a way, it was.

1Exiles with books

The Real Gabinete Português de Leitura was founded in 1837 by a group of 43 Portuguese immigrants, many of them political refugees, who wanted to promote culture within their community in the imperial capital. It was the city's first Portuguese association.

2A Neo-Manueline building

The present building was designed by the Portuguese architect Rafael da Silva e Castro and built between 1880 and 1887. Its Neo-Manueline style imitates the late Gothic of the Age of Discovery, and the façade is inspired by the Jerónimos Monastery. The lioz limestone was carved in Lisbon and crossed the ocean by ship. The four statues represent Pedro Álvares Cabral, Luís de Camões, Prince Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama.

Inside, wooden bookcases rise towards an iron-and-glass skylight. In 2014 Time magazine ranked it among the most beautiful libraries in the world.

Its collection of some 350,000 volumes includes a first edition of The Lusiads, from 1572. The Brazilian Academy of Letters held its first formal sessions here, presided over by Machado de Assis.

3What to look for

• The four statues of navigators and poets in their niches.
• The medallions of the writers Fernão Lopes, Gil Vicente, Herculano and Garrett.
• The doorway, with Manueline-style arches and slender columns.