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On the Gávea side of Lagoa lies the Jockey Club,
also known as the Hipódromo da Gávea, which can be reached
on any bus marked "via Jóquei" - get off at Praça Santos
Dumont at the end of Rua Jardim Botânico.
Racing in Rio dates back to 1825 though the Hipódromo wasn't
built until 1926. Today, races take place four times
a week, every week of the year (Mon 6.30-11.30pm, Fri
4-9.30pm, Sat & Sun 2-8pm), with the international Grande
Prêmio Brazil taking place on the first Sunday of August. A
night at the races is great fun and foreigners can get into
the palatial members' stand for just a few reais, but
remember, no one in shorts is admitted. It's an entertaining
place, especially during the evening racing under
floodlights, when the air is balmy and you can eat or sip a
drink as you watch the action. You don't have to bet to
enjoy the experience - it's not very easy to understand the
betting system they use anyway. On alternate weekends
throughout the year, part of the club is taken over by an
arts and crafts market, the Babilônia Feira Hype
(2-11pm). Apart from the clothes, jewellery and handicrafts
on sale, there are food stalls, music and dance, and if you
stay into the evening you can watch the horses.
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About 3km northwest of the Jockey Club, at Rua Marquês de
São Vicente 476, is the Instituto Moreira Salles
(Tues-Fri 1-8pm, Sat & Sun 1-6pm), Rio's newest cultural
centre and one of its most beautiful. Housed in the former
home of the Moreira Salles family (the owners of Unibanco,
one of the country's most important banks), the centre is
worth a visit just to get a glimpse into the lives of the
wealthy. Designed by the Brazilian architect Olavo Redig de
Campos and completed in 1951, the house is stunningly
beautiful - one of the finest examples of modernist domestic
architecture in Brazil - and the gardens, landscaped by
Roberto Burle Marx, are also attractive. Unibanco is a major
collector of Brazilian art, and since the cultural centre
opened to the public in 1999 it has hosted important
exhibitions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century painting
and photography. In the house there's a rather expensive
tearoom, serving superb cakes and unusual ice creams.
It's
a good half-hour walk to the Instituto Moreira Salles from
the Jockey Club, or take bus #170 from Centro (Av. Rio
Branco), Botafogo, Humaitá or Jardim Botânico, or #174 from
Copacabana, Ipanema or Leblon.
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Rio de Janeiro
guide
Brazil guide
Also in Gávea is the Parque da Cidade (daily
8am-5.30pm) and Museu Histórico da Cidade (Tues-Fri
1-5pm), at the end of Estrada de Santa Marinha: bus #591,
#593 or #594 from Copacabana; #179 or #178 from Centro. The
museum is contained within a two-storey nineteenth-century
mansion once owned by the Marquês de São Vicente, and the
collection is all related to the history of Rio from its
foundation until the end of the Old Republic in 1930. The
exhibits - paintings, weapons, porcelain, medals - are
arranged in chronological order; the first salon deals with
city's foundation, the rest with the colonial period. |
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