Real Gabinete Português de Leitura

This guide follows forty-three Portuguese immigrants who founded a reading room in Rio de Janeiro in 1837 after fleeing political persecution back home, and the decades later when their society's architect decided a rented room was no longer enough. You'll hear why he modeled the new building's facade on Lisbon's Jerónimos Monastery and insisted the stone itself be carved in Portugal rather than sourced locally, and how it made the journey across the Atlantic. It closes with what fills the reading room today, including a sixteenth-century first edition on its shelves.