Museum of the Portuguese Language, Language museum in Luz Station, São Paulo, Brazil
The Museum of the Portuguese Language sits inside an early 20th-century railway station and covers three floors with multimedia installations. The rooms are arranged around a central hall with large projection surfaces and sound systems.
The museum opened on 20 March 2006 in the Estação da Luz, a railway building inaugurated in 1867 and restored for the project. A short circuit started a fire on 21 December 2015 that destroyed two floors and killed firefighter Ronaldo Ferreira da Cruz. The digital collection survived through backups, and after restoration the museum reopened on 31 July 2021, receiving the Ordem de Camões.
The museum is named for the Portuguese language itself, not for the station building. Its third-floor Língua Viva gallery presents the language's accents and vocabulary from across Brazil, and the institution was awarded the Ordem de Camões at its 2021 reopening for services to the language.
The entrance is at door A of the Luz Station, facing the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, as shown on the sign at Portão 1. The station itself handles around 300,000 passengers daily, so allow extra time at peak hours.
A large screen on the ceiling shows words that move constantly and form new meanings. The room below is darkened so the projections become especially visible.
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