Banco do Brasil Cultural Center (CCBB Rio)

The Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, the CCBB, occupies a historic building at Rua Primeiro de Março, 66, in downtown Rio, facing Largo da Candelária. Opened on October 12, 1989, it was the first in Banco do Brasil’s network of cultural centers, which later expanded to Belo Horizonte, Brasília and São Paulo, according to Wikipedia.

The building

The foundation stone was laid in 1880, to a design by architect Francisco Joaquim Béthencourt da Silva. The building opened in 1906 as the headquarters of the Rio de Janeiro Commercial Association and, in the 1920s, became the headquarters of Banco do Brasil, according to Wikipedia.

In its conversion into a cultural center, the project preserved the columns, the ornaments and the marble of the staircase, and restored the dome over the rotunda. The central space, lit by the glass dome, is the most photographed part of the building.

Exhibitions among the most visited in the world

CCBB Rio has appeared in international attendance rankings. According to a survey by The Art Newspaper cited by Wikipedia, the center received more than 2 million visitors in 2013, making it the 21st most visited art museum in the world that year. The exhibition “Picasso and Spanish Modernity”, in 2015, was named by the same publication as the most visited in the world that year in the post-impressionist and modern art category.

Cinema, theater and more

Besides the exhibition rooms on its floors, the building has a cinema, a video room, three theaters, an auditorium and a library, according to Wikipedia. The program changes all the time.

Nearby

The CCBB is close to the Orla Conde and other spots in historic downtown:

• The Paço Imperial and Praça XV.
• The São Bento Monastery, on top of its hill.
• The Olympic Boulevard, toward Praça Mauá.

See more indoor outings in Rio on a rainy day and other collections in Rio museums.