There is a side of Rio de Janeiro that disappears when we look only toward the sea. It lies hidden among century-old buildings, monumental tombs, silent corridors, and ruins where time seems to have stood still.
It’s a Rio that’s less sunny, more mysterious—and, for fans of Edgar Allan Poe, full of scenes that could belong in a story by the master of Gothic literature.
16 January 2027 16:00
Solar de Botafogo
São João Batista Cemetery
Amid mausoleums, sculptures, and the graves of some of the country’s most important figures, the São João Batista Cemetery resembles a silent city within Botafogo. The avenues lined with funerary monuments create precisely that atmosphere of beauty and death so present in Poe’s work.
📍 Rua General Polidoro, 245 – Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro
Royal Portuguese Reading Room
With some 200,000 volumes spread across dozens of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura resembles the kind of library where a Poe narrator might find a forbidden manuscript. The Neo-Manueline building, inaugurated in 1887, completes the scene with wood, iron, stained-glass windows, and a huge skylight.
📍 Rua Luís de Camões, 30 – Centro, Rio de Janeiro
Ilha Fiscal
A Gothic castle in the middle of Guanabara Bay would be enough to make this list. But Ilha Fiscal also holds a story worthy of Poe: it was the setting for the Empire’s last grand ball, held just a few days before the Proclamation of the Republic. Its Gothic style and historic ballrooms make it seem as though the party could simply start all over again when no one is looking.
📍 Praça XV – Downtown, Rio de Janeiro
Parque das Ruínas
The remains of walls, arches, and structures from the former mansion of Laurinda Santos Lobo transform Parque das Ruínas into one of Rio’s most cinematic settings. The building, constructed between 1898 and 1902, was restored without completely erasing the marks of time— which is precisely what gives the place its air of decadent beauty.
📍Rua Murtinho Nobre, 169 – Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro
And to fully immerse yourself in the world of Edgar Allan Poe…
After exploring Rio through this lens, the journey can end inside a short story. The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy transforms the writer’s universe into an immersive experience, bringing stories of suspense, obsession, and mystery to a night that seems to have been plucked directly from his pages.
📍Solar de Botafogo: Rua General Polidoro, 180 – Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro
Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy Rio de Janeiro
16 January 2027 16:00
Solar de Botafogo
