The Museu de Artes e Ofícios occupies the old central railway station on Praça Rui Barbosa and is one of the most thoughtfully curated museums in the country. The collection — more than 2,000 objects — covers the trades, crafts, and ways of working that built pre-industrial Brazil: blacksmithing, weaving, leatherwork, ceramics, woodturning, and a dozen others.
Tools and machines are arranged not as relics but in working tableaux that show how they were used. Several have hand-cranks or pedals visitors can operate. The building itself, restored with the museum, is a tall iron-and-brick station hall from 1922 that is worth seeing in its own right. Free admission on Saturdays.