Ipiranga Museum - Restoration and Readjustment

EDP supports the recuperation and restoration works on Ipiranga Museum, a historic heritage from de city of São Paulo, in Brazil, closed since 2013, a location that interconnects Portugal and Brazil’s memories.

Interconnecting memories

EDP, largest Portuguese investor in Brazil, takes the mission to support culture and art in the countries it acts on. It was the first entity to support recuperation and restoration works on Ipiranga Museum, a historic heritage in the city of São Paulo, that interconnects Portugal and Brazil’s memories. The reopening is set for 2022, a year where the bicentennial of Brazil’s Independence is celebrated.

The Ipiranga Museum - whose official definition is the Museu Paulista da Universidade de São Paulo - is a scientific, cultural and educational institution, fundamental for the comprehension of Brazilian society. It encompasses an acquis of over 450.000 pieces (from the XVII century to mid-XX century), among objects, iconography and archivist documentation. It represents a fundamental axis for the comprehension of the Brazilian society, from the study of the culture’s material aspects, with special attention to the History of São Paulo.

The Museum was opened to the public in 1895 in the monument-building of neoclassical architecture, where the proclamation of Independence in Brazil, in 1822, by D. Pedro I, at the Ipiranga river margins. One of the most renowned masterpieces of the Museum’s collection is the Independência ou Morte painting, painted in 1888 by the artist Pedro Américo in the representation of the famous Grito the Ipiranga (Ipiranga’s Scream).

A new life for Ipiranga Museum

This cultural space, that hosted around 350.000 visitors per year, had been closed since 2013, due to structural issues with the building.

The new project predicts that the whole building, after the recuperation and restoration works, is exclusively dedicated to public visitations, with the architectural exhibitions and visual fruition sites, accessible to everyone, integrated in the urbanistic set of the Independence Park.

The EDP support in this project amounts to 12 million reais, around 2.8 million euros, granted by the Federal Law of Cultural Incentive.

This is an initiative that is part of the Recovering History Program, by BNDES, where EDP is a founding partner. For over 20 years in Brazil, EDP is one of the largest private companies in this sector in the country and counts with more than 10 thousand direct and indirect collaborators.