Maybe one of our favorite museums in Rio! The building itself was an old palace for Dom Pedro and…read morelooks like it used to be a beauty in its heydays. Now it looks a little neglected but since the university has picked up the museum and invested some money in it, the content inside is quite an impressive collection. It starts with a dinosaur and meteor display on the first floor, with a couple stuffed and preserved animals for touching. The second floor opens with a huge skeleton of a ground sloth, native to Brazil. They have ancient dinosaurs skeletons with a live artist painting Jurassic dinosaur scenes. There's several types of real stuffed birds; harpy eagle, penguin, Jacu, toucan, etc. There is an impressive Egyptian mummy collection along with decorated sarcophaguses. They're kept under ambient conditions (temperature and humidity regulated) so it's difficult to get a good picture but you can clearly see how well preserved even the cotton clothes that wraps the body. They also have the Chilean Atacama mummies too! An indigenous section shows the traditional ceremonies and headdresses. Another shows Candomblé symbols and yet another has Inuit carvings. There's so much to look at! The building itself has a beautiful courtyard and elaborate ceilings. At only R$6 entrance fee, it's well worth it's price.

In front of Amanhã Museum. It's not that good, but I would go anyway…read more I had the chance to see the Samba exhibition and it was very good indeed! The rooftop is totally worth it too. En frente al Museo del Mañana. No es tan bueno, pero iría de todos modos. Tuve la suerte de ver la exhibición de Samba y fue muy muy buena! La terraza vale la pena también.

It is too bad that a museum that appears to be recently renovated houses quite a poor collection of…read moreartwork. It has random artwork that is placed haphazardly throughout the various spaces. I thought it was a waste of my money and time to visit this museum. I'd save your money and visit the more substantial Tomorrow Museum diagonally across from the Museu de Arte do Rio.

Stumbled upon this museum after getting off the Cinelandia metro station in Rio, and we loved it…read more Takes about 45 min to browse the entire museum. Some of the art is outstanding. There are enormous paintings, small paintings, sculptures, statues, vases, and more. Best of all, it's free and air conditioned :)

This museum was originally a fortress and weapons depot that dates back to when Brazil was still a…read morecolony. The cannons in the courtyard are a dead giveaway of that. It is located in the downtown area but was fairly easy for me to get to with the metro. You get off at the Carioca/Centro stop. The museum houses almost 300,000 items that are from throughout Brazil's history. Some of the more prominent items on display include former thrones of Portuguese kings, artifacts from indigenous peoples, old horse carriages and paintings from very famous Brazilian artists. This museum is a good diversion if you are getting tired of the beach.

The Brazilian National History Museum was marvelous. I was a bit suspicious of a national history…read moremuseum that wasn't in the capital, but the Rio National Historical Museum certainly did the job. The museum covers a wide range of exhibits. The sections devoted to the discovery of Brazil and Portuguese colonization were particularly interesting, as was the accompanying room devoted to discussing Brazil's indigenous populations and the plight they suffered at the hands of the Portuguese and Brazilians. My personal favorite was the portion of the museum devoted to independence, the Brazilian Empire and the Brazilian Monarchy. The rooms devoted to the Imperial Era were exceptionally well done, and incredibly educational when it came to learning about Pedro I, Pedro II, and Princess Isabella. I gave it four stars for two reasons. The first was that the English language signs were haphazard. While some parts of the museum were fully accessible in English, other weren't at all. Luckily I know English and Portuguese, but if I hadn't it would have adversely affected my experience. The second thing I didn't enjoy was that there was no mention whatsoever of the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. Obviously it wasn't a pretty period in Brazil's national history, but it's certainly a sizable chunk of Brazilian history and I was looking forward to seeing how they discussed it. Otherwise, though, I really enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone in Rio looking to learn more about Brazilian history.