Rio de Janeiro... Churches, Museums and a Few Other Things

In the historical area of Rio there are a number of churches, museums and architectural buildings that I found interesting. The first church that I visited was the Church and Monastery of Sao Bento. 

The monks in the church perform Gregorian chants as part of their normal mass.

I checked out the Casa Franca (French House).

Where they had a temporary exhibit called Cromatica by Waltercio Caldas

Chromatic geometric shapes were displayed in a large hall

The composition of contrasting colors and forms were strangely both visually stimulating and soothing.

I found the nearby Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB) an interesting place to visit. 

There was a temporary exhibit called Corpos Presentes (Still Being) by Antony Gormley

The outside installation, “Event Horizon” features 31 statues cast from molds of the sculptor’s standing body. 27 are fiberglass and placed atop buildings while four cast iron figures, weighing approximately 650 kg each, stand at ground level.

Inside the CCBB’s rotunda, sixty iron figures cast from the sculptor’s body (molded in five different postures), make up the center’s most prominently positioned installation, “Critical Mass II.”

It gave me something to sit down and reflect upon.

I walked around and visited some other sites like the... Tiradentes Palace.

But I really found traces of beautiful art and architecture everywhere I walked. This spiral staircase inside an iron gate was exquisite.

I walked around the pracas (plazas).

I strolled down the avenues.

I explored the alleyways.

I stumbled across this Presbyterian Church.

I thought that I would sit in on a sermon.

And then I came across this structure.

It was not a missile silo... it was actually the Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião (Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian).

The pulpit inside

The ceiling

A statue of Jesus

An extended hand

A modern statue of a saint.

It was very different than any cathedral that I had ever seen.

I ended up in the district of Lapa where this old aquaduct stood amongst a group of modern buildings.

Old and new and a little bit of both... all in Rio.