Rio de Janeiro Historical Center Private Photography Tour

After pick up we will park the car and visit the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro. It was projected by Edgar Fonseca and inaugurated in 1979, replacing the Church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo as the city's cathedral. In a modern style, it has a conical pyramid shape, 106 meters in diameter, 75 meters high outside, 64 meters high inside and a capacity for 20,000 people standing. A differential of the building, with straight and sober lines, is due to the colored stained glass windows torn on the walls up to the dome.

We will continue the tour on foot towards the Largo da Carioca, feeling the vibrating energy of Rio's city center. We will go up the hill to the church next to the Santo Antônio Convent overlooking the square and buildings.

We will then visit the most famous confectionery in Rio, founded in 1894 by Portuguese immigrants Joaquim Borges de Meireles and Manuel José Lebrão, having an extensive list of famous customers in Brazilian society.

Its architecture and environment give you an idea of ​​what the Belle Époque would have been like in the then capital of the Republic. Between 1912 and 1918, the salons inside the patisserie were renovated, with an Art Nouveau touch, with huge crystal mirrors brought from Antwerp, framed by elegant friezes carved in jacaranda wood. The wooden furniture in the interior was carved at the same time by the artisan Antônio Borsoi.

We will walk to the Paço Imperial, a historic building built in the 18th century for the residence of the governors of Rio de Janeiro, it became the house of the King of Portugal Dom João VI and the Emperors of Brazil, undergoing expansions in the 19th century. It is currently a cultural center. Due to its historical and aesthetic importance, the Paço Imperial is considered the most important of the colonial civil buildings in Brazil.

We will visit Rio's former Cathedral, the most famous church in Rio, where the King of Portugal Dom John the VI and the first Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II were crowned.

We will visit the majestic Cultural Center of the Bank of Brazil, located on a building built in 1880, maintained by the bank. It was was inaugurated as a cultural center in 1989, being the first museum to be opened in the CCBB network. The building's adaptation project preserved the refinement of the columns, the ornaments and the marble that rises from the foyer by the stairs, in addition to having reworked the dome over the rotunda.

Rio's most notorious library, the Real Gabinete de Leitura Portuguesa, inaugurated by princess Isabel in 1880 and elected the 4th most beautiful library in the world, among 20 positions, according to Time magazine.