The Museum

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Valuing the diversity of the Portuguese language, celebrating it as a fundamental and founding element of culture and bringing it closer to speakers of the language throughout the world. It was with these objectives that the Portuguese Language Museum was born; the same goals with which it is reborn, in 2021, after its reconstruction in the Luz Station building.

The museum opened to the public for the first time in 2006, with the city of São Paulo as its home, which houses the largest population of Portuguese-speakers in the world. Luz Station was one of the main passage points for immigrants arriving in the country and, to this day, it is a dynamic space for contact and coexistence between various cultures and social classes, sheltering accents from all over Brazil.

In its first 10 years of operation, the Portuguese Language Museum received 3,931,040 visitors, who were able to connect in a playful and exciting way to the language’s origins, its history, its influences and the forms it takes in the daily lives of the population.

As its theme is intangible heritage, the Museum makes use of technology and interactive supports to build and present its collection. The public is invited on a sensory and subjective journey presenting the language as a living, rich, diverse cultural manifestation under constant construction!

Both for its creation and its reconstruction, the Museum had a multidisciplinary team of professionals, including sociologists, museologists, Portuguese language specialists and artists.

From 2006 to 2015, there were more than 30 temporary exhibitions, in addition to courses, lectures, debates and artistic performances. Those honored with exhibitions include writers such as Clarice Lispector, Machado de Assis, Cora Coralina, Fernando Pessoa, Oswald de Andrade, Jorge Amado, Rubem Braga, Guimarães Rosa, Agustina Bessa-Luís and Gilberto Freyre, in addition to singer and composer Cazuza.

The Museum is reopening in 2021 after five years of intense reconstruction and re-implantation work, with renewed technology and exhibitions. The closure at the end of 2015 was sadly caused by a fire that destroyed the Museum. An alliance between the government and the private sector, however, enabled the quick start of the work, which was delivered to the population in July 2021.

Accessibility

The Portuguese Language Museum is accessible to all audiences. We have ramps, tactile floors, adapted restrooms, accessibility features in the exhibition space and trained teams to receive all visitors.

MUSEUM APP

Access it from your cell phone for a visit with more accessibility features.
No need to download anything. Just click here and browse through!

In the app, you can find:

• Museum maps
• Content in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras)
• Audio tour in Portuguese, English and Spanish

Make your event at the Portuguese Language Museum

We have spaces available for rental for corporate and social events.
See our presentation (in Portuguese)