Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil - CCBB

Fascinating area of Rio. I love these types of places!

Every time I go to Rio, I love checking out the exhibits here. This July, I got here just in time to check out the Picasso and Spanish Modern Art exhibit. Pretty awesome. Though the Japanese art exhibit a couple years ago was super cool.

Just FYI, they don't let you take photos of the artwork, but will let you take pictures of the placards with descriptions.

The top floor has a permanent money and president office exhibit. Don't miss out on that.

Price to get in? Free.

Dat line tho. It wrapped around the building, and then some. There are lots of street vendors outside selling filled churros and popcorn. But there are also some sweet and savory snacks available inside. There's also a book shop.

CCBB is a huge cultural center in Rio de Janeiro based in a beautiful building with an imposing entrance hall. It is located next to Candelária in the center of the city. Besides music, theatre and cinema, you'll find great expositions during the whole year which you can visit for free because it is sponsored by Banco do Brasil. It is really worth it to go there once in a while to enjoy the work of the greatest artists in the world such as Kandinsky, Esscher, Salvador Dalí and many more.

Free exhibit of Salvador Dali's work at the cultural center!! What what!!! Great activity (thank you random stranger at a bar for telling me) for a rainy day or if you are in the Centro area. It is kind of confusing when you enter so don't think the exhibit is only a tiny showcase of a few paintings and nose/lip sculpture. You'll have to loop around the museum to find the line to the exhibit where you go up to the first floor on an old elevator that is hand cranked by a human (crazy)! Rumor has it going during the week is easier to get in - we went in around 2pm and didn't have to wait in line but when we were done around 330ish, there was a long line. Come early!

Sine there are enough reviews in Portuguese, I'll leave one in English. I know it can seem at first like kind of a lame idea -- "hey let's go to the Bank of Brasil Cultural Center" -- but honestly, it is well worth your time to drop by. It's a huge space with various expositions, events, and all sorts of neat things. I went for the first time with some friends to check out an exhibition commemorating the military coup that marked the beginning of the dictatorship in Brazil, and aside from a phenomenal exhibit, I was quite taken with the building itself -- you enter its main doors and are greeted by an open space where we encountered a theater group doing a sort of urban flash mob of drama. Nearby is an amazing bookstore, with a few options for snagging a coffee before or after checking out any of the many exhibitions. If you magically catch one of the few rainy days in Rio and need something indoors to do - or even if it's sunny outside - it's worth stopping by!