Brazilian Academy of Letters
Forty living "immortals" decide which words exist in Brazilian Portuguese — and they show up in gilded uniforms with swords.
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Founded by novelist Machado de Assis on 15 December 1896, the ABL has been the unofficial arbiter of Brazilian Portuguese ever since. Its rule is blunt: if a word is absent from its Orthographic Vocabulary, it does not officially exist in the language. No law gives it that power — prestige alone does.
What to look for
- The 40 numbered chairs, each assigned a Patron — a great Brazilian writer who was already dead when the academy opened in 1897
- The fardão: the formal gilded gala uniform, complete with sword, that members wear at official meetings
- Founding references to Machado de Assis, the first president who declared the institution on 15 December 1896
The ABL is a private non-profit, not a public institution — confirm opening hours and visitor access before making the trip.
Brazilian Academy of Letters is one of 29 sights worth the detour in Rio de Janeiro, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Rio de Janeiro pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Rio de Janeiro
- Christ the RedeemerArms stretched 28 metres wide at the summit of a 700-metre mountain, face turned east to meet the sunrise every morning.
- Maracanã StadiumOn 16 July 1950, 210,850 people packed this bowl to watch Uruguay beat Brazil 2–1 — the largest crowd ever recorded at a football match, and that record still stands.
- Museu NacionalOne fire in 2018 erased 200 years of collecting — 20 million objects, Brazil's oldest scientific institution, mostly gone overnight.
- Estádio Nilton Santos (Engenhão)The stadium that blew six times its construction budget and then hosted an Olympics.
- Arquivo Nacional (Brazilian National Archives)Brazil's paper memory since 1838 — founded as the Imperial Public Archives before the republic even existed.
- Rio–Niterói BridgeEight kilometres of concrete over open water, built so a bay full of ships and two city skylines could coexist.