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The Provincial Palace is part of the architectural ensemble of Praça Heliodoro Balbi, in the city of Manaus. Located in the center, it is a century-old property steeped in important facts related to the social and political life of the people of Amazonas.



The name of Provincial Palace comes from the fact that it served as the seat of the government of the Province of Amazonas and the residence of its presidents.

Its construction was started by the Portuguese merchant Alexandre Paulo de Brito Amorim to serve as a residence for his family.



Alexandre Amorim arrived in Manaus in 1851, shortly before the installation of the Province and soon became one of the most important traders in the city. Deceased in 1881, he was vice-consul of Portugal, Knight of the Order of Christ and founder of the Fluvial Company of Alto Amazonas, having implemented the Manaus / Liverpool navigation line, in England.



The merchant did not complete the construction of the property and, in 1867, already belonging to Mr. Custódio Garcia, captain of the National Guard, the building was purchased by the provincial president José Bernardo Michellis.



The works were completed on March 25, 1874 and, until 1875, the Palace started to house several public offices simultaneously: the Provincial Assembly, the Public Works Office, the Public Library and the Provincial High School, currently Colégio Amazonense D. Pedro II.



The Provincial Palace was officially opened only on February 28, 1875, almost a year after it was concluded. The presidents of the Province of Amazonas lived and fulfilled government missions until 1888.



From 1892 onwards, the Provincial Palace became the command of the Military Police, becoming popularly known for more than a hundred years as the Military Police Headquarters.



Restored between 2007 and 2009, the Provincial Palace is under the responsibility of the State Secretariat of Culture and houses the Numismatic Museum, the Museum of Image and Sound of Amazonas, the Pinacoteca do Estado, the Archeology Museum, the Tiradentes Museum and the Atelier of Restoration of Works of Art.



The Bernardo Ramos Numismatics Museum has a collection of valuable collections of coins from Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and Brazil during its periods of Colony, Empire and Republic, in addition to coins, banknotes, medals and decorations.



The Museum of Image and Sound of Amazonas aims to rescue, preserve and disseminate regional production of Amazonian culture, materialized by image and sound - cinema, photography, music, television, radio, magazines and others - organized in museological, iconographic collections, bibliographic, archival, audiovisual and multimedia.



The Pinacoteca do Estado has a collection of approximately one thousand works of art, in the most diversified techniques and authored by more than 300 different artists, offering a comprehensive overview of the Brazilian artistic production of the 19th and 20th centuries, illustrated mainly by regional artists.



The Archeology Museum deals with the collections collected in the territory of the State of Amazonas and develops, from its exhibition, a pedagogical process of information and orientation of the population about the value of this heritage.



The Tiradentes Museum was created from the old weapons room in the Military Police Headquarters and tells the story of the Amazonian military corporation since its early days.



The Works of Art Restoration Workshop has equipment for high-level technical activities related to the conservation and restoration of works of art and collections in paper and fabric.



The Provincial Palace also maintains, according to the model identified in 1900, the Office of the Commander General of the Military Police of Amazonas, with period furniture, and preserves the individual records books of the members of the corporation.

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