The former British embassy that became Rio's official city hall palace.
Landmark buildingThe Palácio da Cidade sits on a large landscaped plot at Rua São Clemente 360, partway up Botafogo's most storied street. Built as the British embassy and ambassador's residence, it is a formal neoclassical palace: a marble base with double staircases, a portico carried on four columns, and private quarters arranged around a rear quadrangle. The interiors follow the Adam style that was fashionable in late-18th-century England.
Since 1975 it has belonged to the city of Rio, which uses it for official receptions and ceremonies — it is the mayor's protocol address rather than a working office block. The grounds give this stretch of Rua São Clemente a green, low-rise break between the residential towers, a short walk from the Casa de Rui Barbosa gardens and the everyday shopping along Voluntários da Pátria.
Address: Rua São Clemente 360, Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro
The British government bought the 60,000 m² site in 1938 to build a new embassy, but the Second World War shelved the plan. Construction finally ran from 1947 to 1950 under Scottish architect Robert Russell Prentice Dowling, and the palace served as the United Kingdom's embassy and ambassador's residence while Rio was still the federal capital.
When the embassies moved to Brasília, the building was sold empty to the city government in the mid-1970s, which furnished it to match the original style and renamed it Palácio da Cidade. It was landmarked (tombado) in 1984 and remains the ceremonial seat of the Rio prefecture.
We don't have an active listing in this building at the moment — browse everything we currently have across Rio.
Browse all properties →The last home built on the bay for 53 years.
An 1850 mansion on Rua São Clemente, Brazil's first public house-museum.
An 1866 neoclassical landmark that went from orphanage to art museum to private school.
Botafogo's signature 1990s glass office complex on the bayfront, twin towers crowned with gilded globes.
Want to see what's on the market near Palácio da Cidade? Browse current listings across the city.
Browse all properties →