The Museum

To appreciate the diversity of the portuguese language, to celebrate it as a paramount and founding element of our culture and to bring it closer to its speakers worldwide.The Museu da Língua Portuguesa was born aiming at this target.

The inauguration took place on March the 20 th , 2006. The chosen location to accommodate the Museum was the Estação da Luz, situated in the heart of São Paulo – city with the largest Portuguese-speaking population in the world – and a site of historical importance to the state capital and to Brazil. The station was one of the main crossing points for immigrants arriving in the country and, to this day, a dynamic place that provides contact and interaction among several cultures and social classes, sheltering accents from all parts of Brazil.

During almost 10 years of its operation, the Museu da Língua Portuguesa welcomed 3.931.040 visitors, who have lived the experience of connecting themselves even more with the language, its origins, its history, its influences and the variations it takes within the population’s everyday life.

Because of its theme, based on an intangible heritage, the Museum used technology and interactive supports to build up and present its collection. The public was invited to a subjective and sensory journey throughout the language, including movies, readings and a vast amount of interactive modules. So, in an engaging, playful and dynamic fashion, the Museu da Língua Portuguesa presented our language as a living, rich, diverse and ever-changing cultural manifestation.

For its creation, the Museum had the support of a cross-functional team of professionals, such as sociologists, museologists, Portuguese language experts and artists.

From 2006 to 2015, more than 30 temporary exhibitions took place, besides courses, lectures, debates and artistic performances. Among those who were honoured by the exhibitions, writers 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, along with the singer and composer Cazuza.

As of today, the Museum is closed for reconstruction.

The Museu da Língua Portuguesa is an initiative of the State of São Paulo’s government, facilitated by the State of Culture Bureau, conceived and accomplished in partnership with the Fundação Roberto Marinho. It has, as master sponsor, the EDP; as sponsors, the Globo Group and the Itaú Group; and the support of the Federal Government, by means of the Culture Incentive Federal Law. The Organização Social de Cultura IDBrasil – Cultura, Educação e Esporte is responsible by the Museum’s management.