Things to Do in Southeast Brazil

Holding over 9 million volumes within its stacks and archives, Brazil’s extensive National Library (Biblioteca Nacional) is the largest library in Latin America and remains one of the first institutions established during Rio’s reign as imperial capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves. Founded in 1810 and relocated to its current handsome Greek Revival-style setting in 1910, the library has maintained an archive of the country’s most important publications, periodicals, photographs, films, and music through the present—its collection of Brazilian popular music is unmatched, with over 200,000 pieces, from samba to sertanejo (a genre from the dry backlands of the northeast akin to American country music).

The library is open for public use and wows visitors with its elegant red-carpeted staircase and eclectic interior flourishes. One of the most valuable holdings inside is the late-19th century photography collection of Empress Theresa Christina Maria, Naples-born wife of Brazil’s second emperor, Pedro II, which was recognized by UNESCO for its historical significance and given to the library after her death by Pedro on the condition that the collection would be named for her. Despite moving the national capital to Brasília in 1960, a branch of the National Library didn’t open there until 2006.

Sitting in the shadow of big brother and Rio de Janeiro icon, Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Morro da Urca is just as important if only because the cable car trip up to Sugar Loaf includes a stop atop this turtle shell-shaped rock. Not to be outdone by its better-known neighbor, the 720-foot hill, a little more than half Sugar Loaf’s height of 1,300 feet, still offers spectacular panoramic views of Christ the Redeemer and Corcovado, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, Guanabara Bay, downtown Rio, and Sugar Loaf itself (something you can’t see when you’re actually on it).

At the top of the Morro da Urca, the visitors’ center provides elevators for special needs guests, restrooms, and souvenir and food concessions. Hiking trails skirt the Morro, starting at Praia Vermelho, but one of the most exhilarating options available, if not exactly popular or cheap, is a helicopter ride around Sugar Loaf and over nearby Copacabana. Make sure to plan your visit on a cloudless day, or you might be squinting into the cumulus. Also, don’t forget the Morro’s namesake, the tiny and historic district of Urca, sits squeezed between the mountains and the bay, offering restaurants and bars with gorgeous views of the water and an intoxicating tropical ambiance.

Set in an impressive neoclassical building in downtown Rio de Janeiro that harkens back to an era when the city was a national—and imperial—capital, the National Fine Arts Museum (Museu Nacional de Belas Artes) houses over 16,000 artworks created by Brazilian painters, sculptors, and other visual artists. Focused mainly on artists from the 19th century, including Brazilian-born but French-trained painter Victor Meirelles de Lima and painter-turned-educator Pedro Américo, the museum also features works imported from Europe when the Portuguese royal family moved the imperial capital from Lisbon to Rio ahead of Napoleon’s troops in 1807, and works by contemporary Brazilian artists such as Lithuanian émigré and Modernist artist Lasar Segall and Nativist painter Di Cavalcanti, a heavyweight in the Brazilian Modernist movement who attempted to exclude any discernible European influences in his artwork.

Opened in 1937, the museum includes a collection of Brazilian folk art with a heavy focus on northeastern Brazil, and a collection of traditional West African art, such as textiles, wood carvings, and masks. Paintings featuring religious scenes and iconography, such as Giovanni Battista Tieppolo’s reverent Saint Cajetan and 16th century humanist Francisco de Holanda’s The Lord’s Supper make up some of the signature pieces of the museum’s international holdings.