Palácio do Catete — Catete, Rio de Janeiro

About the building

The Palácio do Catete, at Rua do Catete 153, is the neighborhood's defining landmark: a granite-and-marble neoclassical palace built in the 1860s for the Baron of Nova Friburgo, with formal gardens that run all the way back to the Flamengo waterfront. Since 1960 it has housed the Museu da República, and its gardens function as a free public park used daily by residents.

For anyone weighing an apartment in Catete or northern Flamengo, the palace is the practical center of the neighborhood — the Catete metro station sits beside its gate, and the garden makes up for the area's smaller apartment footprints.

Address: Rua do Catete 153, Catete, Rio de Janeiro

History

Built between 1858 and 1867 for the coffee baron Antônio Clemente Pinto, the palace was bought by the federal government in 1896 and became the seat and residence of the Presidency of the Republic the following year. Eighteen presidents governed Brazil from this building over six decades.

Its history includes the most dramatic single event in Brazilian republican memory: President Getúlio Vargas took his own life in his bedroom on the third floor on 24 August 1954. When the capital moved to Brasília in 1960, the palace was converted into the Museu da República, and the room where Vargas died is preserved as part of the collection.

Notable residents

Getúlio Vargas President of Brazil who lived and governed in the palace during both of his presidencies and died there on 24 August 1954.
Juscelino Kubitschek President from 1956 to 1961 and the palace's last resident head of state, who moved the capital — and the presidency — to Brasília in 1960.

Source: Wikipédia — Palácio do Catete