São Paulo has the highest concentration of Portuguese speakers in the world and the Portuguese Language Museum is dedicated to their heritage and literature. The Portuguese Language Museum opened in 2006 and has since delighted visitors with its interactive displays dedicated to the language. Find out how the Portuguese language has influenced other dialects and how the language has altered through throughout history as you learn about cultures, literature, poetry and theatre.
The museum is best discovered with a Portuguese speaker, as some exhibits are only listed in the Portuguese language. If you come on your own you’ll find many of the exhibits and displays are translated into English and Spanish and English-speaking staff members are happy to assist with further translations.
Allocate a few hours to exploring the museum’s three halls. When it opened, the Portuguese Language Museum was the only educational facility of its kind in the world. Explore the temporary exhibition gallery on the ground floor to see the collected works of several Portuguese and Brazilian writers, playwrights and poets. Literature has taken the Portuguese language all over the world because of writers such as José Saramago, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for literature.
Another flight of stairs will bring you to the museum’s permanent collection, an exhibition that shows a timeline of the Portuguese language’s development. Learn about how Portuguese was influenced by other languages in Africa, South America and Europe in the Crosswords exhibition. See the exhibition Map of the Speakers to discover the different dialects of Portuguese that can be found in Brazil.
The Portuguese Language Museum is situated in Estação da Luz railway station in the Luz neighbourhood. The museum is best reached by metro and bus, as parking may be difficult to be found in the area. The museum is closed on Mondays and selected public holidays. Check exact opening hours on the museum’s website before planning your visit. There is a fee for admission.
