Benjamin Constant House Museum

The Museu Casa de Benjamin Constant occupies an old estate in the neighbourhood of Santa Teresa, in Rio de Janeiro. Benjamin Constant and his family rented the house in 1890, after he fell for the garden and the view over Guanabara Bay. The building dates from the second half of the 19th century, and its original owner was Antonio Moreira dos Santos Costa. After Benjamin Constant's death in 1891, the federal government acquired the house intending to turn it into a site of republican memory, leaving it in the use of Benjamin Constant's family. The house is neoclassical in style and has an arbour and a bandstand on the central plateau of the grounds, which are part of the Santa Teresa Environmental Protection Area and hold fruit and ornamental trees. Inside, you can see the changes in domestic life between the 19th and 20th centuries, and the alterations the family made. The house was listed in 1958, on the recommendation of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, then an official at SPHAN (the national historic and artistic heritage service), who recognised the historical importance of the house going back to the First Republican Constitution (1891), which proposed creating a museum in honour of the "Founder of the Republic". Considered the "First House of the Republic", the Museu Casa de Benjamin Constant holds a very important documentary and museum collection. Its mission is to preserve and share the life and work of its patron, encouraging critical thinking about the history of the Empire and the Republic in its political, social and cultural expressions, through its collection, educational and communication work, the production of knowledge and the sustainable use of its Park. After years closed for restoration, the Museum reopened in November 2023 with several improvements.