Brazil's oldest museum burned down in Rio de Janeiro - 20 million exhibits and 200 years of knowledge lost
Brazil's oldest museum burned down in Rio de Janeiro - 20 million exhibits and 200 years of knowledge lost

Video: Brazil's oldest museum burned down in Rio de Janeiro - 20 million exhibits and 200 years of knowledge lost

Video: Brazil's oldest museum burned down in Rio de Janeiro - 20 million exhibits and 200 years of knowledge lost
Video: Embroidered Leaf Artist - YouTube 2024, November
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The National Museum of Brazil, which is located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, was severely damaged by fire. A huge collection of this museum was destroyed by fire, the building of which was previously the residence of two emperors and a king. On the website of one of the television channels, you can see photographs and a video of the burning down museum.

The fire took place at about half past seven on the evening of September 2. At this time, the museum was already closed, and therefore no one was hurt. When the fire broke out, there were only four caretakers in the building. They learned about the fire in time and managed to leave the premises.

The mansion, which housed the National Museum of Brazil, was built at the beginning of the 19th century. Its overlays were made of wood, which is why the flame enveloped the entire building in a short time. Most of the roof collapsed. With the extinguishing of the fire in the museum, certain difficulties arose, which are primarily associated with difficulties related to the supply of water. The rapid spread of the flames throughout the mansion was also facilitated by numerous various chemicals that were used during the processing of museum exhibits for their better preservation.

Michel Temer, President of Brazil, called this day sad for all citizens of his country, as it was not just a building that burned down, but a cultural object with which work, knowledge and research gained and carried out over the past 200 years were lost.

The mansion, which has been a Brazilian museum for a long time, was located in a park called Quinta da Boa Vista, in the northern part of the city of Rio de Janeiro. It occupied an area of 20 thousand square meters. There were about twenty thousand exhibits in the collection of this museum. These included ancient household items and minerals, South American and Egyptian mummies, archaeological artifacts. The preliminary assessment of experts makes it clear that all the exhibits were destroyed by fire.

The National Museum was founded by João VI King of Portugal in 2018. In June of this year, he celebrated his 200th anniversary. In those days, the territory of Brazil was poorly explored and the establishment of such a museum was supposed to facilitate its study. Initially, only samples of the local fauna and flora were kept in the museum. Most of all there were birds, which is why the museum was even nicknamed "the house of birds". This museum was moved to the Palazzo San Cristovan, which was the residence of the Emperors Pedro I and Pedro II in 1817-1889, at the end of the 19th century. The cause of the fire of the museum building has not yet been established, and work is still underway to assess the damage caused to it.

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