Paço Imperial
Colonial governor's mansion turned royal palace, where a king once greeted commoners in daily audiences.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro centers on a strange daily ritual that ran for more than a decade after 1808, when the Portuguese king Dom João VI arrived fleeing Napoleon and opened this former governor's mansion to anyone with a request. It follows the beija-mão, the hand-kiss audience where a fisherman or a washerwoman could line up beside a count, and a painter's account of a king who seemed to forget his own rank. Historians say his memory was sharp enough to recall whose brother was ill or whose harvest had failed that season.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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