Built by the Portuguese community and opened in 1887, with a limestone facade shipped from Lisbon and a reading room rising three galleries of dark carved wood under a skylight, holding around three hundred and fifty thousand volumes — the largest collection of Portuguese works outside Portugal. It is a working library, not a museum: entry is free, the room is small, and you are asked to be quiet and quick. Ten minutes is enough to see it and it is among the most striking interiors in Brazil.