Praça da Estação & Museum of Arts and Crafts
Praça Rui Barbosa / Museu de Artes e Ofícios
A city square in front of the old railway station. The station building became the Museum of Arts and Crafts in 1922, which displays tools and trades from Brazil's pre-industrial era.
Praça da Estação, officially Praça Rui Barbosa, was the early gateway to the city. Today it often hosts open-air concerts and street carnival performances. The Museum of Arts and Crafts (MAO), housed in the old central station building, holds about 2,000 traditional tools from Brazilian trades, arranged by woodworking, blacksmithing, weaving, mining, and other crafts. The exhibits tell the stories of ordinary workers. Admission is low-cost. The Central metro station is next to the square.
Opening hours
Museum Tue–Sun (check official website for hours)
Nearby sights
- Feira Hippie (Sunday Arts & Crafts Fair)
- Parque Municipal Américo Renné Giannetti
- Palácio das Artes
- Mercado Central
- Mercado Novo
- Memorial Minas Gerais Vale
- MM Gerdau – Museum of Mines and Metal
- Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Belo Horizonte