Palácio Rio Negro
Main façade of the palace
General information
Town or cityPetrópolis
CountryBrazil Brazil
Coordinates22°30′31″S 43°10′52″W / 22.50861°S 43.18111°W / -22.50861; -43.18111
Construction started1889

The Palácio Rio Negro (English: Rio Negro Palace) is a palace located in Petrópolis, situated in a mountainous part of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is one of the official residences of the President of Brazil, used mainly as a country retreat.[1]

History

President Hermes da Fonseca (right) and First Lady Nair de Tefé, on the Rio Negro Palace's staircase, after their wedding (Fon Fon magazine cover), 1913

In 1889, three months prior to the Proclamation of the Republic, Manoel Gomes de Carvalho, the Baron of Rio Negro, purchased from the heirs of the Klippel family the lot where his summer residence would be built. He engaged Italian architect Antonio Jannuzzi, a friend of his, to design the palace and it was completed later in 1889. De Carvalho moved to Paris in 1894, leaving the building empty, and in February 1896, the Palace and adjacent buildings were sold to the State of Rio de Janeiro, to serve as the official residence of the state Governor.[2][3]

In 1903, the Palace was incorporated to the Federal Government, and became the official summer residence of the Presidents of Brazil. Since then, sixteen Presidents have made use of the Rio Negro: Rodrigues Alves, Afonso Pena, Nilo Peçanha, Hermes da Fonseca, Wenceslau Brás, Epitácio Pessoa, Artur Bernardes, Washington Luiz, Getúlio Vargas, Gaspar Dutra, Café Filho, Juscelino Kubitschek, João Goulart, Costa e Silva, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and most recently Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.[4][2]

It was during the administration of Hermes da Fonseca, that the Palace lived its most brilliant moment, with the wedding of the President and Nair de Tefé – a celebrity at the time, due to her beauty, intelligence, and the caricatures that she published under the pseudonym of Rian.[4]

President Getúlio Vargas was a frequent visitor. He stayed at the Palace every summer, during his 18 years in office.[4]

The palace was more frequently used when the city of Rio de Janeiro was the Capital of Brazil. Since the transfer of the seat of Government to the newly founded Capital City of Brasília, in 1960, use of Rio Negro Palace declined sharply. The palace was not used at all in the 1970s and 1980s although President Fernando Henrique Cardoso resumed use of the palace for brief vacations in the 1990s. Today, Rio Negro Palace is rarely used.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, First Lady Marisa Letícia, Governor of Rio de Janeiro Sérgio Cabral and wife Adriana on the balcony of the palace, 12 September 2008

See also

References

  1. ↑ Palácio Rio Negro Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine Prefeitura de Petrópolis. Retrieved on 2011-05-27. (in Portuguese).
  2. 1 2 "Informações sobre o Museu Palacio Rio Negro" (PDF). Ministério da Cultura Instituto Brasileiro de Museus (in Portuguese). 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  3. ↑ Mesquita, Marcelo (21 November 2005). "Ministry of Culture - MinC » Rio Negro Palace". thacker.diraol.eng.br (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 4 May 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 Rio Negro Palace Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine Prefeitura de Petrópolis. Retrieved on 2009-07-01.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.