Catete’s most imposing building, Palácio do Catete, now Museu da República (museudarepublica.museus.gov.br, free), was initially built to showcase the obscene wealth of Antônio Clemente Pinto (1795–1869), a coffee baron responsible for bringing close to three million enslaved Africans to Brazil. In 1896, the palace housed the president of Brazil until leader Getúlio Vargas committed suicide here in 1954.
Today, the palace and its gorgeous rear garden have been given back to the people as a free museum and park. The museum has a good collection of art and artifacts from the Republican period, and also houses a small cafe, an art-house cinema and a bookstore.
Everything you look at inside the palace is extravagant. Each room upstairs is decorated with painstaking (literally, as it was built before slavery was abolished) detail and in various styles, including Venetian and Moorish. The delicate wall carvings similar to fleurs-de-lis might just take the prize. On the ground floor, a Portuguese-only exhibition is dedicated to Rio’s history in the early half of the 20th century.
Leave the museum to the left, and walk through the gate outside the south end of the building. Here, you’ll walk into an impressive garden reminiscent of what you’ll find in Europe, with tall palm trees, a gentle river with swans, and couples cuddling in the grass. The gardens also often host Junta Local (juntalocal.com) food and artisanal clothing fairs, featuring upstart small businesses specializing in vegan, organic and eco-friendly products.
