The National Library of Brazil stands on Rio Branco Avenue at Cinelândia Square in central Rio de Janeiro. The military engineer Sousa Aguiar designed it. The cornerstone was laid on August 15, 1905, and it was inaugurated on October 29, 1910, a century after the library's founding decree. The article calls the style eclectic, mixing neoclassical and Art Nouveau elements.
Eliseu Visconti, Henrique and Rodolfo Bernardelli, Modesto Brocos and Rodolfo Amoedo made its ornaments. It has a stained glass ceiling, a decorated entrance hall and a main staircase with a bust of King John VI.
The collection descends from the Portuguese Royal Library, moved to Brazil in stages in 1810 and 1811. It holds about 9 million items. Its Teresa Cristina Maria photograph collection of 21,742 photographs was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register in 2003.
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