Santos Dumont House Museum
The house is a picturesque residence built in 1918 for Aeronaut Alberto Santos-Dumont on a steep hillside near the centre of the city. The street is Rua do Encanto, meaning "Enchanted Street", so the house was nicknamed A Encantada, "The Enchanted". It was constructed with the help of engineer Eduardo Pederneiras.
The house has some unusual innovations. Most notably, one of his inventions was the shower with hot water, the only one of Brazil at that time, being heated with alcohol. The external staircase of the house can only be climbed starting with the right foot, while the internal staircase can only started with the left foot. The internal architecture of the house is unusual for the period in that no partitions are used between the rooms. The house also has no kitchen, Santos-Dumont having all his meals delivered from the restaurant of the Palace Hotel, which at that time was across the street. It is now the Catholic University of Petrópolis.
The house has three floors, plus an observatory on the roof.
Santos-Dumont's second book, O que eu vi, o que nós veremos, was written in the house in 1918.
After his death, the house was donated to the City Hall of Petrópolis by his nephews so that "an institution was installed that would maintain his memory."
On July 14, 1952, the house was registered by IPHAN and today is part of the National Historical and Artistic Heritage.
References
- ^ "Museu Casa de Santos Dumont" [Museum House of Santos Dumont]. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
- ^ "5 motivos para conhecer o Museu Casa de Santos Dumont, em Petrópolis" [5 reasons to visit the Santos Dumont House Museum in Petrópolis]. Archived from the original on September 22, 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
- ^ "Museu Casa de Santos Dumont (Mapa de Cultura RJ)" [Museum House of Santos Dumont (Map of Culture RJ)]. Archived from the original on February 12, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
- ^ "Casa de Santos Dumont em Petrópolis" [House of Saints Dumont in Petrópolis]. Archived from the original on March 26, 2018. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
- ^ "Monumentos e Espaços Públicos Tombados - Petrópolis (RJ)" [Monuments and Public Spaces Registered - Petrópolis (RJ)]. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
- ^ "Vários prédios tombados pelo Iphan no Centro Histórico precisam de restauração" [Several buildings listed by Iphan in the Historic Center need restoration]. Archived from the original on July 18, 2019. Retrieved July 18, 2019.