Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura Page Content Page Name (for URL) Page Title Breadcrumb Text Don't put anything here When I first came to Rio two years ago, I got taken to "Centro Cultural Carioca" - a nice live music place downtown. From the window of CCC I noticed a baroque building that said "Real Gabinete Portuguez de Leitura" - "Royal Portugues Reading Room". (The word "Portuguez" was spelled with a "z" and without a hat over "e".) Since then I've been to CCC several times and each time thought I should go by this square during the day. Last week I finally found myself near by, with some time to kill, and with a camera. I took some pictures of the building outside, then peaked inside, just in case. <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_005_1441 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_011_0169 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_015_0646 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_007_1511 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_008_2332 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_010_8521 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_014_0032 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_027_3760 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_022_6366 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_038_5506 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_030_9952 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_041_7233 2005-11-07-gabinete/20051107_056_6042 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> What I found inside was a large room, 3-4 floors high, with all walls covered with thousands of old books, framed framed by shelfs and banisters of dark wood with gilded details - quite a view. There were tables on the floor with some people reading books, and the quite atmosphere really added to the library feeling. There were signs, however, asking us not to touch the books and there access to second and third level was only for "pessoas autorizadas". It appears that you can request a book and they would bring it to you (one of the pictures shows a guy climbing a ladder on the 3rd level), but most of the people who were reading had their own books, I think. I later went to read about the Real Gabinete on the Internet and discovered that the building is newer than I imagined. It is a late 19th century imitation of early 16th century "arquitetura manuelina" (after Portuguese king Manuel I), "characterized by plastic exuberance, naturalism, robustness, dynamic curves and reliance on motives inspired by maritime flora and seafaring of the Age of Discoveries." It contains 45,000 volumes. There are more details about it on Gabinete's absolutely unusable website at [http://www.realgabinete.com.br/](http://www.realgabinete.com.br/). Don't put anything here Don't put anything here Advanced Fields Category 2002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014E. AsiaE. EuropeL's FamilyL's FriendsN. AmericaN. EuropeS. AmericaS. AsiaW. EuropeY & LY's FamilyY's Friends Prototype Redirect Permissions0 Actions Config Markup Module HTML/Meta/Keywords HTML/Meta/Description Save Hook HTML Fields Main Head Body Header Menu Logo Page Content Template Sidebar Footer Tags Allowed for XSSFilter HTTP Fields Cache-Control Expires Guru Fields Templates Translations Fields Edit UI Admin Edit UI Don't put anything here A summary of your changes Edit Summary Don't put anything here Don't put anything here save preview cancel
