REGIONAL MUSEUM OF AREIA

                                                                                                 GESSICA CORREIA DE OLIVEIRA

                       

              There are many reasons to visit Areia. First of all, Areia is a very historical city with lots of different places to visit. For example, Engenho Museum, Pedro Américo’s House and the Regional Museum of Areia. This review will focus on the Regional Museum of Areia, which was created in 1972 by the Canon Ruy Barreira Vieira who donated the most part of his assets.

            According to the city website, various items are available at the museum, “such as religious art, decorative arts, visual arts, ethnology, textual and iconographic documents, plus a small collection of Mineralogy, Paleontology and Zoology”. The collection is organized in two parts, showing the history of the city, as well as its art and cultural events, specially highlighting the life and work of the painter Pedro Américo, Aurélio de Figueiredo and the writer José Américo.

Nowadays, the museum is showing the Sacred Art in Areia. This exhibition is composed of crucifixes, oratories, lithurgical objects, clothes, religious iconography and furniture. Another important thing is that the young people there won the Rodrigo de Melo Franco prize because of the great restoration job. On weekends, the museum is open and they do a ‘sarau’, so you can read poetry, dance forró, and drink cachaça which is produced there. It is a very interesting experience.

   Visiting the Regional Museum is an unforgettable experience, because you learn to give the proper value to your culture and history, especially to the people born in Paraíba. It is totally different from João Pessoa, full of cultural events. Furthermore, it is possible to know some details of the history of the region. Therefore,  it is another important reason to visit the museum. Moreover, according to the city website, it aims to “[…] foster the scientific, artistic and cultural region of the Paraibano swamp”.

In conclusion, I recommend that you visit Areia, and the Regional Museum of Areia. The Regional Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m., and on Sundays and public holidays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

REFERENCE:

Portal Areia online. Available at: Access on: 21 august 2013