Completed in time to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Brazilian independence, the Paulist 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, Brazil’s first monarch, declared the country’s independence from Portugal in 1822.
The Ipiranga Museum was closed for almost 10 years to complete the renovation work that was urgently needed. Today, it holds a vast collection of over 450,000 objects and artworks related to the imperial Brazilian era, most dating from the 19th and 20th centuries but also including colonial-era pieces.”
During the lengthy construction phase, the main museum complex underwent extensive restoration work, which also included the addition of an entirely new building. One of the main parts of the renovation project was the installation of a system to waterproof all below-grade concrete structures 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 artifacts. Throughout the years, these collections have been transferred to other institutions. A part of the art collection was also given to the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo Museum.
The objective of these transformations was to make Museu do Ipiranga a specialized history museum. Besides 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/#