Completed in time to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Brazil’s independence, the Paulista Museum of the University of São Paulo (Brazil), commonly known as the Ipiranga Museum, reopened its doors in September 2022.
First inaugurated 127 years ago, the Ipiranga Museum symbolizes the history of Brazil, especially the city of São Paulo. It was built on the site where Dom Pedro I, the first monarch of Brazil, declared the country’s independence from Portugal in 1822.
The Ipiranga Museum was closed for nearly 10 years to complete urgently needed renovation work. Today, it houses a vast collection of over 450,000 objects and works of art related to the Brazilian imperial era, most dating from the 19th and 20th centuries, but also including pieces from the colonial era.
During the long construction phase, the museum’s main complex underwent extensive restoration work, which also included the addition of a completely new building. One of the key parts of the renovation project was the installation of a system to waterproof all concrete structures below ground level of the expanded complex.
There is a long-term exhibition that addresses two main themes: the construction of the Monument Building and the transformations of the museum’s collection throughout its history.
When the museum was created, it had collections of botany, zoology, ethnology, and mineralogy. Over the years, these collections were transferred to other institutions. A portion of the art collection was also donated to the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo.
The aim of these transformations was to make the Ipiranga Museum a specialized history museum. In addition to all these changes, visitors can also see the scale model that shows how the building was originally designed.
For more information about the museum, visit the link: https://museudoipiranga.org.br/en/#