Palácio Antonio Lemos & MABE

This rubber-boom palace served as the city hall between 1860 and 1883. By the early 1990s the palace was virtually abandoned, with animals roaming around inside, but it underwent renovation and once again houses the municipal government headquarters as well as the Museo de Arte de Belém (MABE).

Constructed in the Brazilian imperial style, the building has a grand central staircase of Portuguese marble. The museum upstairs has gorgeous wood floors - cloth slippers are provided at the entrance - and a fine collection of Brazilian 20th-century paintings, including Cândido Portinari's 1957 oil Seringal.