Instituto Benjamin Constant — Urca, Rio de Janeiro

About the building

The Instituto Benjamin Constant commands a long stretch of Avenida Pasteur at numbers 350–368, near Praia Vermelha at the entrance to Urca. It is one of the most complete neoclassical ensembles in Rio: colonnades, balustraded parapets, a pediment over the main facade and a monumental entry staircase, all laid out with strict symmetry across a landscaped campus.

The institute is a working federal institution — Brazil's reference school and research center for the education of the blind — so the building is alive rather than a museum piece. Together with the military and university buildings around Praia Vermelha, it gives this approach to Urca its formal, almost campus-like character.

Address: Avenida Pasteur 350–368, Urca, Rio de Janeiro

History

The institution descends from the Imperial Instituto dos Meninos Cegos, founded in 1854 under Dom Pedro II. The purpose-built Urca headquarters was constructed in stages: the east pavilion went up between 1872 and 1890, and the institute moved in definitively in February 1891, onto what was then called Praia da Saudade.

The composition was only completed between 1937 and 1944, when the west wing and the grand entrance staircase were finally built to the original plan. The building received provisional state landmark protection in 2001 and was fully restored in 2009.