Musée impérial
In 1822, Dom Pedro I, traveling to Vila Rica, Minas Gerais, to seek support for the movement of the Independence of Brazil, was enchanted with the Atlantic Forest and the mild climate of the mountain region. He stayed at Fazenda do Padre Correia and even made an offer to buy it. Faced with the owner's refusal, Dom Pedro bought the Fazenda do Córrego Seco in 1830 for 20 contos de reis, thinking of transforming it one day into the Palace of Concordia.
The successive political crisis in Portugal and the internal dissatisfaction were decisive for his return to the native land, where he would die without returning to Brazil. The Fazenda do Córrego Seco was left as an inheritance for his son, Dom Pedro II, who would build his favorite summer residence there. At the behest of Dom Pedro, the beautiful neoclassical building was constructed, where the Imperial Museum now operates, which began in 1845 and was completed in 1862. To begin construction, Pedro II signed a decree on March 16, 1843, creating Petropolis. A large number of European immigrants, mainly Germans, under the command of the engineer and superintendent of the Imperial Treasury, major Julius Friedrich Koeler, was in charge of raising the city, building the palace and colonizing the region.
Constructed with resources from the emperor's personal endowment, the building had the original design elaborated by Koeler himself and, after his death, was modified by Cristoforo Bonini, who added the granite portico to the central body. To conclude the work, important architects connected to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts were hired: Joaquim Cândido Guillobel and José Maria Jacinto Rebelo, with the collaboration of Manuel de Araújo Porto Alegre in decoration.
The complex was enriched, still in the 1850s, with the garden planned and executed by the landscaper Jean-Baptiste Binot, under the guidance of the young emperor. The vestibule floor, in Carrara marble and black marble from Belgium, was laid in 1854, and the floors and frames made of hardwoods, such as jacaranda, cedar, pau-satin, pink and vigna, from the various provinces of the Empire.