CCBB São Paulo

The Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in São Paulo, known to everyone as the CCBB, occupies a grand bank building from 1901 on the corner of Rua Álvares Penteado and Rua da Quitanda, in the oldest part of the city. Banco do Brasil ran its São Paulo headquarters here for most of the twentieth century, and when the bank moved out the building was restored and reopened in 2001 as a cultural centre, the third in a network that began in Rio de Janeiro and now includes Brasília and Belo Horizonte. There is no permanent collection. Instead the CCBB hosts a rolling programme of large exhibitions, theatre, cinema, music and education, most of it free, and it regularly appears among the most visited exhibition venues in the world.

The building itself is the one thing that never changes. A stained glass skylight crowns a central atrium that rises through the whole height of the block, wrapped by wrought iron balustrades and marble floors. The old banking hall on the ground floor is the main gallery, the upper floors hold further galleries, and the basement holds the former vault and the theatre. The cinema sits alongside, with its own programme of retrospectives and festivals.

Exhibitions here have ranged from Escher and Picasso to Brazilian modernists and contemporary photography, and queues on weekends can be long. Check what is on before you go, then leave time to look at the architecture and to walk the surrounding streets, because the CCBB is the best doorway into the historic centre of São Paulo.