at a glance

The current edifice was designed by a Portuguese architect in Neo-Manueline style, which evokes Gothic and Renaissance fashions, while The outside is adorned by four statues which each depict an important Portuguese figure - nobleman and military commander who first 'discovered' Brazil, Pablo Alvarez Cabral, the great poet, Luís de Camões, the politician, Infante Dom Henrique de Avis 'the Navigator', and the Portuguese explorer, Vasco de Gama. Chandeliers, ivory, marble and a silver monument adorn the interior of the great Reading Room.  the gabinete real portugues maintains an official website on this link, and can be contacted via phone at 21 2221.3183 or via email here.  ● more ● The Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil (Brazilian National Library), is one of the ten largest libraries in the world, and is the largest in Latin America - It has around ten million items in its collection, including a significant selection of rare books and other forms of media.