Top photo: Marcelo Martins

An 800m² mural by artist Eduardo Kobra, focusing on five Santos icons (the Coffee museum, the streetcars, Pelé and the port, depicted inside the city’s characteristic low walls), inaugurated on October 23, 2020, illustrates the facade of the Santos Convention Center, the most modern and comprehensive in the city.  

With a constructed area of 32,565.81m², the convention Center, officially opened on October 30, 2020, is located beside Avenida Mário Covas, near the ferryboat terminal that links Santos and Guarujá. 

Top photo: Raimundo Rosa

With around 49,000 titles, including veritable treasures from the world of comics, the Marcel Rodrigues Paes Comic Library is an important tool in motivating reading among all members of the public.

The collection is free to the public and offers children’s comics, manga, fanzines and the work of independent national authors. There are also examples in English and Spanish, as well as HQ comics for adults.

The city’s main arts complex, the Patricia Galvão Cultural center comprises the Brás Cubas Municipal Theater, the Rosinha Mastrângelo Arena Theater, the Santos Museum of Image and sound (MISS), the Roldão Mendes Rosa  Newspaper Library , and the Braz Cubas and Patricia Galvão art galleries. The building is also home to the Municipal Department of Culture, as well as workshops and regular courses in the areas of scenic arts, visual arts, music, dance, audiovisual and general culture.

Top photo: Ronaldo Andrade

The only construction in Neo-Manueline style in São Paulo State and one of the few in Brazil, this building was inaugurated in 1900, still unfinished, after two years’ work – the project by two Portuguese engineers was concluded in the following year. In 1945, the Royal Portuguese Center was renamed the Portuguese Center and in 2006, merging with the Portuguese Social Union, was given the name of Portuguese Cultural Center. The older building is the administrative and cultural headquarters, while the other unit holds social activities.

Top photo: Susan Hortas

The Maritime Museum boasts one of the main collections of submarine archeology and maritime history in Brazil. To the sound of old sea shanties, visitors witness a simulation of cannon fire, look at models of captains and pirates and enjoy seeing relics salvaged from 18th and 19th-century vessels, including pirate ships and the Titanic. 

The entrance to the museum, inaugurated in December 2005, is decorated with ship’s flags and a life-size model of a pirate. Inside you can find models of famous vessels, a collection of medals of varying nationalities and 25 oil paintings by Carlos Alfredo Hablitzel, which depict important Brazilian and foreign naval episodes. Among these is the first naval battle in Santos Bay, in 1580. 

Top photo: Francisco Arrais

With a large collection of marine biology from Latin America, it possesses the largest collection of taxidermied sharks in the country, including the embryo of a specimen with two heads and fossilized teeth of a megalodon, a prehistoric animal extinct for 30 million years.

It also exhibits a whale shark; a sunfish, the largest bony fish in the world; seabirds and shells weighing over 100 kilos. A large part of the collection comes from abroad.

The Maritime Museum boasts one of the main collections of underwater archaeology and maritime history in Brazil. To the sound of old sailors' songs, visitors witness simulated cannon fire, contemplate models of pirates and captains, and appreciate relics recovered from 18th and 19th-century vessels, including pirate ships and the Titanic.

The entrance to the museum, which opened in December 2005, is adorned with ship flags and a life-size pirate figure. Inside, there are scale models of famous vessels, a collection of medals from various nationalities, and 25 oil paintings on canvas by Carlos Alfredo Hablitzel, depicting important Brazilian and foreign naval episodes, including the first naval battle in the bay of Santos in 1580.

Top photo: Tadeu Nascimento

A place that brings together tradition, architecture, history, flavors and aromas. Installed in an eclectic-style building, with an area of 6,000 m² and more than 200 doors and windows, the Coffee Museum, inaugurated in 1998, is much more than a tourist attraction that showcases the number one Brazilian export at the end of the 19th century. It is an experience of various sensations, from the cultivation of the bean to the consolidation of coffee as one of the national symbols. Permanent and temporary exhibitions, works of art, period furniture, themed shop and a café serving the best coffee beans – including the most expensive and rarest in the country – are some of its many attractions.

Top photo: Marcelo Martins

Created to recover, witness and preserve the sports history of Santos – considered the sportiest municipality in Brazil since 1955 – the De Vaney Sports Memorial Center boasts a collection of more than 500 trophies won from 1939.

The museum also houses photographic and personal collections with more than a thousand images, library and sports newspaper collection with journalistic material organized according to subject and sport. There are also records of veteran athletes, CDs and DVDs, research material, statements, auditorium for talks and small events. The museum offers guided tours, publishes information and has a choir of veteran athletes, which meets weekly.