Every day, hundreds, perhaps thousands of people travel through the streets of the Lapa neighborhood. While most of these people are workers or residents, a large part, especially on weekends, are made up of bohemians and tourists, looking for nightlife.
What almost no person in either group knows is the story of the luxurious-looking building that is just to the right of the main entrance to the famous Selarón Staircase; this is the Cecília Meirelles Room.
The building was built in the last decade of the 19th century to house the Armazém Romão, a local confectionery. In the 20th century, the space was converted into a hotel called “Grande Hotel da Lapa” that until the forties was a marked presence in the cultural imagination of the city since it was converted to a local cinema, due to the decay of the neighborhood.
In the sixties, the state government took possession of the building and, after a brief renovation, finally founded a house of musical performances there, naming it Casa Cecília Meireles, in honor of the famous Brazilian author. Nowadays the house has daily performances of classical music with two presentation rooms, the largest with a capacity for 680 people and the smallest for 150.
Both the schedule and information and box office can be found on the website: http://salaceciliameireles.rj.gov.br/
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