quitandinha palace congress and convention center

This place is very interesting and worth the visit. It is very art-deco and must have been a beautiful hotel/casino. I wish I could've seen it in its heyday.

The palace is really beautiful from the outside and inside, you absolutely have to come here. The tour inside was free, unless you wanted to do a guided tour, but it was cheap anyway. Inside you can see the great rooms that once were the Casino Hotel, that now are most of them empty or are theaters from SESC (social service), it's a short visit. You have also an interesting bowling in the basement, but we did not play there.Outside you have an lake that has paddle boats and even a little lighthouse, also a garden that was interesting to just stay there aprecciating the view of the palace and the lake. Also bring a camera to take pictures! We went there on a sunday, and there were plenty of people, couples, families with children. You also have and restaurant nearby.

I believe the Quitandinha Palace is included on the tours to Petropolis that usually run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since we were only free Wednesday, we went with our private tour guide Vicente from Rio Alternative Tours! Vicente didn't spend a lot of time here, but there really wasn't much to see. It seems a shame that all this was built as a grand casino shorty before gambling was outlawed in Brazil. It's fairly empty now, but easy to picture it in its heyday. There was an interesting art exhibit in one section of the palace when we visited. I did get some good shots of the exterior despite the fog on the day we visited. It's well worth a stop, just not an extremely long one.

Interesting to see all those empty halls, which have not been used for decades (after gambling was forbidden), still oozing a very sixties atmosphere. During the very short time it had been used as a casino, it must have been quite a place!

It's so sad to visit a place which has poor children working in front of the Quitandinha Palace. Sick horses and kids working and offering to the tourists to get a hide. I'm really shocked. I'm surprised it's allowed.

A very big palace, with great rooms and decorantions. There are a very cool bowling that works really fine and a tour to know the hole palace.

Gorgeous building. Did not go through the inside.

That´s a good sample of Alsacian architecture right in the main entrance to Petropolis. The facade is amazing, beautiful, sumptuos and an afternoon tea at one of its historic halls worth it, though the inside decor is a bit old-fashioned! Even with the last big make up, the hotel, a former casino, keeps needing modernizing its facilites to be more than an old charming place. So, nowadays, just go there to a quick meal or visit and avoid staying.

I've been twice to this place. Once during, and now after the renovation works.First of all. The Owner description is totally wrong: "Once the summer home of Brazil's last emperor, this enormous palace houses furniture, paintings and jewels from the Brazilian empire and is used as a convention center."The Imperial Palace in the heart of Petropolis is the place where the emperor and his family once lived during summertime. It's a museum, not a convention center, ... and it's a top attraction.The Quitandinha Palace was in the forties probably the largest casino in South America. The outside looks great and refers to French traditional architecture (Normandy, Elzas, ...). A lake in front of it with a lighthouse and swan paddle boats, and the mountains behind make this place a unique setting. However, the interior by Dorothy Draper is totally over the top and a weird mixture of Brazilian Baroque and Hollywood Art Deco. Plaster ornaments, ugly paintings, a giant dome, an ice skating rink, a giant bird cage, ... A brilliant display of bad taste. Over the last years, everything has been carefully renovated and is waiting for your comments ;-)

It seems to me that Palacio Quitandinha is overlooked by visitors while in Petropolis... Three words of advice: don't overlook it! Although there isn't much to see, it's beautiful to see this kind of architecture up close in Brazil, and although you can't really go beyond the lobby, looking in the side rooms and looking at all the decorations in the place, it's really impressive! The small lake in front is very peaceful also, and we heard that if you look at it from above, it looks like the map of Brazil! Very cool place, and you don't need a whole lot of time here.. Maybe just 15 mins... Since most people come from Rio on BR-040, to get to downtown where all the main Petropolis attractions are, you have to drive by Palacio Quitandinha, and definitely make a stop there!

Infelizmente não pudemos entrar pois era segunda.Mas fiquei na vontade. Lugar muito bonito e histórico.Tiramos fotos externas e brincamos com os cachorros do entorno (até que bem cuidados).

Um ótimo lugar para uma tarde de passeio, visitar o palácio Quitandinha e conhecer como era antigamente o maior cassino do Brasil na década de 59, 60... hoje com toda sua estrutura preservada e os espaços vazios, na parte debaixo tem pista de boliche e mesa de sinuca para quem quiser se divertir.

Sua arquitetura nos mostra a alma de seus fundadores. Já foi um cassino nos tempos remotos e hoje, aberto à visitação, é um tour que vale a pena fazer.

Edifício imponente que chegou a ser o maior hotel-cassino da América Latina. Localizado na entrada da cidade, muita gente faz apenas uma parada para fotos.na fachada, mas é possível fazer uma visita guiada (R$ 10,00) por seus luxuosos salões. Vale a pena!

Muito bonito. É realmente um palácio. O prédio lembra bem a cultura européia. Possui alguns restaurantes e um lago por perto. Vale!