Museu da Língua Portuguesa

Museu da Língua Portuguesa occupies the upper floors of the landmark 1901 Estação da Luz railway station, using large-scale video projections, ambient soundscapes and touch-screen exhibits to trace the history of the Portuguese language and its distinctly Brazilian variants, slang and regional accents. The museum's centerpiece is a vast central hall where words and sounds are projected across the walls and ceiling, complemented by interactive stations exploring poetry, music lyrics and everyday speech from across Brazil. Because the museum reopened in 2020 after a fire destroyed much of the original building in 2015, exhibits combine restored elements of the historic train station with entirely new multimedia displays. A visit of ninety minutes to two hours covers the main exhibition halls at a comfortable pace, and the museum's location inside a working train station means the visit can easily be combined with a walk through the surrounding Luz district, home to the Pinacoteca and Parque da Luz. The interactive nature of the exhibits, most of which are in Portuguese with some English support, makes the museum busiest with school groups on weekday mornings; Saturday's free admission draws the largest general crowds.