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SAO PAULO, Sept. 1 (AP) After a nearly 10-year renovation, one of Brazil’s most popular museums has finally reopened as part of the country’s 200th anniversary celebrations.
Located in the heart of the manicured grounds of St. Paul’s Independence Park, the Paulista Museum houses more than 3,000 objects, 2,800 of which have been restored since it closed in 2013. (These include historical documents, paintings, household items, and souvenirs.
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Known by the Brazilians as the Ipiranga Museum, it was established in 1895 by the creek where Emperor Pedro I declared the country’s independence from Portugal.
The project, which cost about $40 million, made the museum fully accessible to people with disabilities, restored the building’s exterior walls, and doubled the size of the building. The installation of a new air-conditioning system also allowed a new collection of exquisite objects to be displayed to the public.
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Curators and curators at the University of Sao Paulo, which manages the museum, expect about 1 million visitors over the next 12 months. The museum will reopen to the public on September 8, the day after Independence Day.
The house on top of a hill in the park also has some standalone souvenirs. The Casa do Grito (House of Weeping) is said to be located where Pedro I shouted “Independence or death!” to his supporters.
His remains were buried in a basement south of the park, while his heart is usually kept in a formaldehyde-filled glass container at the Church of Our Lady of Lapa in Porto, Portugal. The heart was loaned to Brazil as part of the bicentennial celebrations, and it is also on display to the public.
“It wasn’t originally built to be a museum; it was supposed to be a monument to Brazil’s independence,” curator Solange Ferraz de Lima told reporters on Thursday’s pre-opening tour. “The museum was so far from the city, but it was engulfed by it.”
The museum’s most-visited room features Pedro Américo’s Independence or Death, painted in 1888, the year before Brazil became a republic.
The National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, which houses the largest collection of historical artifacts in Latin America, has a new look after it was almost completely destroyed by a fire in 2018. Brazilian daily O Globo reported Thursday that reconstruction of the site will be completed by 2026. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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