The municipal art museum, housed in a 19th-century neoclassical mansion overlooking the waterfront.
The collection focuses on Brazilian painting from the 19th and early 20th centuries, with a particular emphasis on Pará artists and scenes of Amazonian life. The rubber-era portraits and landscapes have a documentary quality that makes them interesting even if you are not normally drawn to academic painting.
Entry is free, and the building stays cool inside — a welcome respite from the street heat. The ground floor rooms open onto a courtyard where you can sit and look back at the building's facade.
A story
The Museu de Arte de Belém occupies the Palácio Antônio Lemos, a handsome blue-and-white neoclassical building that was once the city hall. Built in 1883 during the rubber boom, the palace is as much the attraction as the art inside: the tiled floors, carved wooden ceilings, and grand reception rooms give a sense of what Belém looked like when it considered itself the cultural capital of the Amazon.