Number 16 - Palácio Guanabara

Next out in the series "how to prepare for a Royal visit" is Palácio Guanabara. This beautiful palace situated in the neighborhood of Laranjeiras is the headquarter of the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro.

The palace was built in 1853, and from 1865 it was the residence of Princess Isabel and her husband Conde d'Eu, and became known as Palácio Isabel. At the time you arrived to the palace through Rua Paissandu, and for this reason the street was lined with imperial palm trees. The princess and her family lived there until 1889, when the palace was confiscated by the military government. The heirs of the royal family in Brazil are still trying to receive a compensation for this - the lawsuit is still in progress, one of the oldest lawsuits in Brazil.

The palace is now open for visits the last Saturday of every month, but one has to send an e-mail and set up a visit. Since I have never gotten around to to this, I was happy to once again get a private tour. The palace has recently been restored and is absolutely marvelous.

I was there for work, so of course without my camera, but even the pictures from my cellphone give an idea of the splendor.

During the restoration work they discovered part of the original pavement in an area thought to have been the slave quarters of the palace during the time when Princess Isabel lived there. Interesting, because Princess Isabel is known and remembered because she actively promoted and ultimately signed a law, named Lei Áurea or the Golden Law, emancipating all slaves in Brazil.  

The floor has been covered with resistant glass and is lighted, but it sure is a strange feeling to walk on the glass!

As I write the State of Rio de Janeiro is going through times of hardship. The State Government relied heavily on royalties from the extraction of petroleum and gas, but with the price of oil having been drastically reduced, and Brazil going through a corruption scandal in the state owned company Petrobras, revenues have fallen dramatically. The State Government is having difficulties paying all its bills, and the Governor has announced that even his salary will be reduced.

Here is hoping that 2016 will be a better year for Rio de Janeiro and Brazil!

And I finish off with a view of The Palace from Rua Paissandu, it is truly a Palace worthy of a Royal visit!

Number 15 - Palácio do Itamaraty

First out in the series: "how to prepare for a royal visit" is the Itamaraty Palace.
Itamaraty is one of these words that has been adopted into Brazilian Portuguese and has gained a whole new meaning. It has become so familiar to the Brazilians that most of them never think about the fact that this word was originally an indigenous word meaning the river of small stones - according to Wickipedia that is! There are several translations, but the fact is that the title Baron of Itamaraty was given to a Brazilian who got very rich trading coffee and precious gemstones, and his son built the Itamaraty Palace in Rio de Janeiro between 1851-1855.

In 1889 the palace was bought by the Brazilian Government and became the first presidential residence. From 1899 to 1970 the building was the headquarter of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the word Itamaraty in Brazilian Portuguese ended up becoming a synonym for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1970 when the Ministry was moved to Brasilia, they moved into a completely new building, originally called Palácio dos Arcos.

Designed by Oscar Niemeyer and inaugurated on 20 April 1970, the name meaning Palace of Arches did not stick! People kept calling the Ministry of Foreign Affairs simply Itamaraty and eventually the government gave up and the palace was renamed Palácio Itamaraty or Itamaraty Palace!
And Itamaraty Palace was the first place visited as we prepared for the Royal visit, it was a rather grey day in Brasilia, but the Palace was nevertheless impressive.

Since the Royal visit also included Rio de Janeiro, we also got to visit the original Palácio do Itamaraty, and those who know me a little will understand that I really enjoyed that. The Palace is open for the public a few times a week, but we were lucky enough to get a private tour.

In the middle of downtown Rio de Janeiro it was a big surprise to enter the old pink building and come through to a back patio, complete with palm trees and a garden lake, a calm oasis surrounded by old buildings.

The buildings around the lake were added at a later time, between 1927 and 1930, to house the library and the offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We entered the original Itamaraty Palace by the office building on the left, going up one floor and so the tour we got was of the second floor of the palace.

As we crossed from one building to the next, we were in good company:

The statues of Christopher Columbus and Thomas Jefferson guide the staircase. And the palace itself is well guided.

The palace is in need of a little care, part of it is suffering from water infiltration and is closed to the public, but a project of restoration is in the making. Here is hoping it will be carried out soon! Even so the palace is an impressive and pompous sight:

From the dining room.

From the hallway.

The ballroom.

The main staircase and the dome above it.

The audience room.

As we walked out in the daylight I kept thinking of how much of Brazilian history these old rooms had witnessed, and of how they should be preserved in a dignified manner. I also marveled at my luck; to get to see these things is a wonderful part of my job.