The Avenida do Rio Branco, so called since the recent death of the famous Baron of that name, formerly the Central, is claimed by Brazilians to be the most beautiful street in the world. Though, from one or another point of view, other partisans may dispute its pre-eminence, there is no question as to its splendid construction and imposing edifices, which for variety and beauty it would be difficult to match within the same distance in any other city. Every style of architecture is represented, Moorish, Gothic, Italian, etc., with varied and lovely coloring. Minarets and towers, unusual mosaic sidewalks, the welcome shade and friendly green of trees, the dashing automobiles, fashionable and beautiful women, men from almost every clime contribute to the wonderful Avenida. Made to order, so rapidly as to take one’s breath, it is indeed a notable, a marvellous achievement: begun in 1904, finished in 1906; and not this only, but the beautiful Beira Mar as well. It seems a transformation by magic. To mention the various attractive buildings is impossible. Many banks and important commercial houses may be found here, buildings of the leading newspapers, the Jornal do Comercio, the Jornal do Brazil, the O Paiz, and conspicuous near the south end, the National Library and the Art Museum on the left, the Municipal Theater on the right, and at the very end on the right the Monroe Palace.

The National Library, called the most valuable in South America and, with more than 400,000 catalogued numbers, the largest south of the equator, is housed in a handsome building of the best modern equipment. This was designed and constructed by the Mayor, General Souza Aguiar, after an inspection of the libraries of Europe and America. It contains its own departments for printing and binding. The famous Ajuda Collection, which was brought over by Prince JoÃo in 1806, when Napoleon’s army invaded Portugal, was the nucleus. From the old Carmelite hospital in the rua Primeiro de MarÇo it was moved to its own quarters in 1810, when it already numbered 60,000 volumes. All schools and periods of typographic art may here be found, examples of Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, Aldins and Plautius, Ibarras, Elsivers, and many others. A permanent exhibition has been arranged of Books, Manuscripts and Charts, Engravings and Prints, Medals and Coins. In the rarity of some of its treasures, if not in number, the collection compares with the famous ones of Europe: a perfect copy of the Mazarin Bible printed in 1462, the first from movable type, the first edition of the New Testament by Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1514, a Novus Orbis Regionum with map of Brazil, 1532, a Roycroft Bible, London 1557, and many other rarities. Among the 300 engravings and prints are works of DÜrer, Cranach, Rubens, etc. With over 100,000 prints and above 30,000 (many rare) numismatic specimens, a treat is afforded to the specialist.

The reading room, where it should be, on the main floor, is furnished with comfortable leather-covered armchairs and individual desks. In the side galleries around the rotunda are arranged in glass cases many of the especial gems of the rare specimens. In the great stack rooms, I observed many books in English, noticing the names of Mark Twain, Macaulay, Dickens, and others. The finest editions of the various works in handsome bindings seem to have been selected.

The library is open from ten a.m. to nine p.m. with the usual exception of Sundays and holidays.

Other libraries which only the specialist will be likely to visit are the Fluminense with 90,000 volumes, on the Ouvidor, the Libraries of the Army, and of the Navy, that of the Medical School with 70,000 volumes, of the Polytechnic with 70,000, the Senate Library, the Congressional, the Gabinete Portuguez de Leitura, occupying a beautiful building in the rua Luis de CamÕes near San Francisco Square, the Commerce Library in the Stock Exchange Building, and others.

Next to the Bibliotheca Nacional on the Avenida is the Escola de Bellas Artes, the Art School and Museum. Again the collection of Prince JoÃo was the nucleus to which many accretions have been made by Government grant and by private donations. Among original works of the old masters of various schools which are here to be seen are canvases of Caracci, Correggio, Greuze, Guido Reni, Jordaens, Lucas, Murillo, Poussin, Rubens, Snyder, Jan Stein, Teniers, Tintoretto, Van Dyke, Velasquez, Veronese, Wouvermans, and many others, besides more than 100 never positively identified. Among fine pieces of sculpture is one by Rodolpho Bernadelli of Christ and the Adulteress. A large number of productions of Brazilian artists is also included in the collection, which is said to be the largest and most important in South America.

Opposite the Fine Arts Museum is the Municipal Theater, a splendid edifice, facing a small triangular park, with one side on the Avenida.

The theater, like the Colon in Buenos Aires, is fitted up with every modern improvement, mechanical and electrical devices above and below the stage, which seems almost as large as the auditorium, with rows upon rows of floor drops to give the depth desired. A power plant, an air filtering and cooling plant, and what is called the most beautiful restaurant in South America, minister to the comfort of the audience. The restaurant of Assyrian style in details follows Babylonian originals in the Louvre of Paris. The leather-covered armchairs in the auditorium, of unusual width and well spaced, are especially comfortable. The President, of course, is provided with an elegant box, communicating with private salon and dining-room on the floor below. Modelled after the Paris Opera House, though a trifle smaller, it is richly decorated. Designed and built by Dr. Francisco Oliveira Passos, son of the great Mayor Passos, during whose administration the grand transformation of the city was largely effected, the theater was inaugurated in July, 1909, with Rejane and an all star French company. It is now leased to an impresario who must produce each year a number of standard plays, some in Portuguese translation, and some plays by native dramatists, further encouraging national art by conducting a dramatic school. Visitors may be admitted at the rear entrance between ten and four on working days.

At the very end of the Avenue, not far from the Theater and close to the sea, with open space on every side, stands the Monroe Palace, which at the St. Louis Exposition served as the Brazilian headquarters, and here, in 1906, as the meeting place for the second Pan American Congress. It is of a rather florid type of architecture, the most ornate of the buildings on the Avenue.

The Monroe Palace has one entrance on the Avenida and one on the opposite side towards the Passeio Publico. This most ancient of the public gardens of Rio, founded in 1783, contains vegetation from this epoch, hence 130 years old. It has the usual beauties of tropical parks, trees, shrubbery, flower beds, and vines, also several statues, and a pretty building, entrance 1 milreis, housing a collection of native fishes. This Marine Aquarium, installed in 1904, has 20 sections with 35 different species; among these, flying fish, feather fish, turtles, moon fish, crabs, sea-horses, varieties of lobsters, and of marine plants. A pavilion, affording opportunity for rest and the purchase of refreshments, supplies also music and moving pictures. The garden, which is much frequented, was designed by a native artist, Valentina da Fonseca e Silva, more familiarly known as mestre Valentim. The artistic decoration includes two statues, Apollo and Mercury, the arms of Luiz de Vasconcellos, then Viceroy, the bust in the fount of the jacarÉs, and two granite pyramids inscribed 1783, A’ saudade do Rio e Ao Amor do Publico.

Busts of the poets, GonÇalves Dias, and Castro Alves, and of the journalist, Ferreira de Aranjo, founder of the Gazeta de Noticias, have been placed in the garden. At the main entrance is a gilded bronze medallion of Queen Maria and her consort, Dom Pedro III.

Among the important streets running from the PraÇa 15th of November across the Avenida, a little north of the Hotel Avenida, are the AssemblÉa leading to the PraÇa da Carioca, a short distance from the Avenue, and the rua 7th of September leading to the PraÇa Tirandentes farther west. The Garden contains an admirable statue, by the French sculptor Rochel, of Dom Pedro I, founder of the empire. Continuing in the same direction, one will reach the large and beautiful Parque da Republica, in a PraÇa or Square of the same name, of unusual size for a park near the heart of the business section. Here are woods, lakes, and streams with aquatic birds, black and white swans, islands and rustic bridges, a grotto with a pretty cascade, 66,000 varieties of plants, many birds and animals, and some statuary.

All of the parks are characterized by luxuriant tropical verdure.

On the PraÇa, south of the Park, is an immense building, the Firemen’s Barracks.

To the northwest, facing a paved square, is the great Station of the Central Railway, with tracks running into three different states and to forty or more cities, including SÃo Paulo. Its revenue is more than $10,000,000 a year. On another side of the PraÇa facing the Park is the Senate House, and the Mint with an imposing faÇade and some fine ornamentation in bronze. Other buildings on the sides of the PraÇa are the Ministry of War, the Barracks, the Normal School, the Foreign Office, the Law and the Medical Schools, and the National School of Music.

From the northwest corner of the Park two parallel streets run westward, the Visconde de Itauna and Senador Eusebio, to the Square Onze de Junho, whence they continue at the side of the Canal do Mangue, forming a grand boulevard with two rows of royal palms on each side. This double and channeled avenue has one sharp bend, turning in the direction of the new docks, where the canal empties into the harbor. It is a mile and a half in length, has two tracks for electric cars, paved ways for wagons, and broad asphalt for automobiles, to which the central stream of water with its massive stone embankments and the superb rows of palms add an unusual beauty.

The Zoological Garden, admission 1$000 is reached by electrics of the Villa Isabel line from the PraÇa 15 de Novembro, a pleasant ride. Some interesting animals are on view, but if time is limited, it may be better employed elsewhere.

From the same Square, cars marked SÃo ChristovÃo go to the National Museum in the Quinta de Boa Vista. The Quinta, a fine large park, deserves a visit, the Aquarium (free) also, even should the Museum be closed, as has long been the case, for the purpose of extensive alterations. The Museum, with other objects has a good collection of archÆological and ethnographical specimens. A famous meteorite of unusual size, named Bendigo, was formerly in the vestibule. The great building was earlier the winter palace of Dom Pedro II. It has been proposed to transfer the Zoological Garden to this handsome park.

The various hills remaining in the center of the city, a few have been completely leveled, give variety and picturesqueness to its topography, although interfering somewhat with ease of locomotion and traffic. Of considerable height and steepness, they are slender, so that the way around is not over long; thus in the opinion of the tourist who has an eye for scenic beauty they are not to be regretted. The energetic person with a little time to spare should enjoy the ascent of the four hills which are near the Avenida, and of one or two of those along the Beira Mar. Near the south end of the Avenue, a little back of the Hotel Avenida, is the Santo Antonio hill surmounted by a convent of that name. The main entrance is from the rua 13th of May, in a narrow passage between the Santa Theresa Tramway Station and the Government Printing Office on the left. The ancient and massive structure of the Convent, built rather to defy the ravages of time than to excite admiration for its beauty, has outside walls on the ground floor 4 feet 9 inches in thickness. The vast corridors are poorly lighted. Begun June 4, 1608, the construction was finished in 1615. The hill, originally Morro do Carmo, later took its name from the convent. Of the Franciscan Order, the convent is poor, but the fine sacristy is worth visiting. Here is antique and artistic furniture, such as is rarely seen, carved from jacarandÁ, one of Brazil’s most valuable woods. Here, too, is a remarkable wainscoting of blue tile, representing incidents in the life of St. Anthony, paintings on wood, a staff done in gold and precious stones presented by the Prince Regent, another from the Governor of Sacramento, now Uruguay, and other curiosities. In 1855 an imperial decree suspended the novitiate of religious orders; by 1886 but one member of the community remained; in 1889, with the establishment of the Republic, religious liberty was ordained, other friars were admitted, and the work of restoration began. In a large saloon of the convent is a stone slab marking the burial place of John Forbes Skellater, native of Scotland, who served the Kings of Portugal as General and Councillor, accompanying H. R. H. to Rio de Janeiro, where he died April 8, 1808, at the age of 76. In an old chapel of the cloisters is a tomb containing the remains of the Prince Pedro Alfonso, son of the Emperor, Dom Pedro II. Several pictures by unknown artists remain from ancient days.

The hill on the other side of the Avenue, also south of rua AssemblÉa is Castello, at the top of which is the Astronomical Observatory with ruins of an ancient church. The easy climb by a narrow paved roadway is well worth making for the delightful view from the summit of the city and harbor below, and the more distant mountains in the rear.

Near the foot of Castello on the east side, facing the bay on the Praia de Santa Luzia is Misericordia Hospital, largest of the kind in South America: a great institution with 57 doctors, 88 nurses and many assistants. In 1910, 12,171 cases were treated besides 154,600 outdoor patients. Among other numerous and notable philanthropic institutions is the admirable Institute of Protection and Assistance to Infants, on rua Visconde do Rio Branco 12, founded by Dr. Moncorvo Jr. in 1901; accomplishing a great work in the surgical and medical treatment of children and mothers, and in propagating information as to hygiene. It received a Grand Prize at the International Exhibition at Rome 1912. Equally if not more distinguished is the Pathological Institute Oswaldo Cruz, also founded in 1901. This, outside the city at Maquinhos, reached by rail or water in 45 minutes, is called the most completely equipped in the world for such work: the study of disease germs, the preparation of serums, etc. Its publications number nearly 100. The smallpox microbe was here discovered.

Near the north end of the Avenida on the same side as the Castello is the SÃo Bento hill, at the extremity of the rua Primeiro de MarÇo, the enclosure of the Benedictine Monastery above being entered by a large gateway at the bottom of a flight of stone steps. Founded in 1591, the existing church was built between 1633 and 1642; the present monastery was begun in 1652. During the French invasion in 1711, the buildings were seriously damaged, and the Order contributed liberally for the French to leave the town. Nearly half the building was in 1732 destroyed by fire. The property, till 1827 belonging to the Portuguese Congregation, was then transferred to the newly organized Brazilian Congregation. In 1909 SÃo Bento became Abbadia Nullius, equivalent to an Archbishopric. It had, in 1912, 20 monks in residence and 6 in the Rio Branco Mission to Indians in the Amazon region. The monastery has, since 1858, maintained a free school for boys, primary and secondary, with 400 pupils now in attendance, and with 500 in a night school. Lay professors assist and many distinguished men have here received their early education. The Order is very wealthy, owning much property in the middle of the city. It formerly owned the site of the Marine Arsenal and the Ilha das Cobras, which was purchased in 1589 by the founder of the monastery for 15 milreis, about $5.00. In the revolt of the Naval Brigade, December, 1910, on the Cobras Island, the Government forces made use of the monastery, which suffered seriously from the return fire. The church, rich in carved and gilded decorations, is worth a visit. It contains some rare furniture, and an ancient organ valuable only as a relic. The sacristy and corridors preserve a large number of old paintings. One of the cells, containing fine specimens of wood work, with a bed formerly used by D. JoÃo VI, is for the especial use of the Papal Nuncio when he descends for a few days from his residence in Petropolis. The library of 15,000 volumes comprises many valuable theological works, both in printing and in manuscript.

On the west side of the Avenue, near the same north end, is the Morro da ConceiÇÃo, easily ascended from rua Acre by a paved way with steps. There are many dwellings on this hill, with the Palace of the Cardinal Archbishop at the top. He prefers, however, to live below in a residence in the rua do Bispo. Offices adjoining the Cathedral, in the 7th of September street, are used for the official work. Adjoining the Palace grounds on the hill top is the Fortaleza, built in 1715. Formerly one of the chief points in the defense of the city it is now used as a barracks for an infantry regiment. The watch towers, old sentry boxes, and the dungeons are of interest. The last have been in use, even since the founding of the Republic, for the imprisonment of political offenders; in 1893-94, British subjects, among others, were here immured. The view from this hilltop over the city is the most comprehensive to be obtained from any central point.