Founded in 1772 by Azorean couples, Porto Alegre was besieged during the 1835–45 Farroupilha revolution and rebuilt with republican marble. Three days trace its museums, colonial core, and the immigrant quarters that made it Brazil's most European capital.
Rio Grande do Sul's oldest museum (1903) in an 1887 mansion holds Farroupilha revolution weapons, Bento Gonçalves relics and Azorean settler artefacts. Tue–Fri 10:00–17:00, Sat–Sun 13:00–17:00; Rua Duque de Caxias 1231.
Begun 1921 on the site of the 1772 Azorean parish church and finished only in 1986, designed by Roman architect Giovanni Battista Giovenale in Italian Renaissance style with Venetian mosaic domes. Open daily 08:00–19:00.
Seat of the state government since 1921, built in French eclectic style by Maurice Gras with Aldo Locatelli frescoes and Paul Landowski's bronze doors. Guided tours Mon–Fri, book by phone with ID at least a day ahead.
The city's finest surviving colonial-era townhouse (1818), once home of the Câmara family and later the state assembly's cultural centre. Its thick stone walls and iron balconies show late-Portuguese domestic building on Rua Duque de Caxias.
Housed in the 1913 former central post office by German architect Theo Wiederspahn, this museum narrates state history from Guarani missions through the Farroupilha war to Getúlio Vargas. Tue–Sat 10:00–18:00 on Praça da Alfândega.
A 1953 triumphal arch in Parque Farroupilha honouring the Brazilian Expeditionary Force that fought in Italy in 1944–45. Carved reliefs by Antônio Caringi depict gaúcho soldiers; the arch frames the park's central axis.
Founded 1954, occupying the 1913 neoclassical former customs house redesigned by Theo Wiederspahn. Its 5,000-work collection traces Rio Grande do Sul art from 19th-century academic painters to Iberê Camargo. Tue–Sun 10:00–19:00.
The 1911–22 port complex where steamers landed German, Italian and Polish immigrants. Its Armazéns A–B, English-designed brick warehouses with iron trusses, still line the Guaíba beside the 1922 Porto Alegre port authority tower.
From the 1900s, Bessarabian and Polish Jews settled around Rua Fernandes Vieira, giving Porto Alegre its densest immigrant quarter. The 1922 Sociedade Israelita synagogue and the old Colégio Israelita buildings survive along Avenida Osvaldo Aranha.
Porto Alegre's oldest surviving church, begun 1807 and consecrated 1904 after a century of interruptions. Legend holds a slave was walled into its foundations; its twin towers and Rococo interior overlook Rua dos Andradas.
Set in the 1845 Solar Lopo Gonçalves, a Farroupilha-era colonial house in Cidade Baixa. Holds the city's archaeology collection and 200,000 historic photographs of Porto Alegre. Tue–Fri 09:00–17:00, Rua João Alfredo 582.
Opened 1850 when burials moved out of churches, this walled necropolis holds Italianate mausoleums of the coffee and leather families, Farroupilha veterans and Republican governors, with marble angels by immigrant Italian carvers.