The Municipal Museum of Caxias do Sul (Portuguese: Museu Nacional de Caixias do Sul) is a Brazilian historical, artistic, and ethnographic museum, located at 586 Visconde de Pelotas Street, in Caxias do Sul, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The Municipal Museum, besides permanently showing its own collection, offers monitored visits, a temporary exhibition room, itinerant exhibitions, and several heritage education projects. History The Municipal Museum of Caxias do Sul was created along with the Municipal Public Library under Municipal Decree No. 2, of October 3, 1947, by intendant Demétrio Niederauer. The two institutions were inaugurated on November 13 and opened to visitors on December 20 of the same year, with the intendant himself as director. For many years the museum and library functioned in a big house in front of the Dante Alighieri square, but the space available for exhibitions was very limited. The collection has grown without a defined criterion and has accumulated a quantity of irrelevant pieces. In 1965, a campaign was launched to merge the museum of the Centro de Tradições Gaúchas Rincão da Lealdade with the Municipal Museum and make it a historical museum only, discarding its natural history collections and everything that had no historical interest. The idea caused controversy and was refuted by Demetrio Niederaurer, who considered the natural history section important as a didactic instrument. The headquarters was demolished in 1967, and the museum's collection was transferred to the Rincão da Lealdade, when most of the pieces were lost. The museum remained forgotten until 1974, when, during the preparations for the centennial celebrations of Italian immigration, scheduled for 1975, the community's attention turned to it. For its reopening it was necessary to find a new headquarters; the old Morandi Otolini family mansion was chosen. The building, built in 1884 and expanded with an additional floor in 1893, was put up for auction in 1894 and acquired by the Municipal Government for 3.62 contos de réis, initially serving as a prison, school, and police station. In 1919, the Municipal Government was installed in the old mansion, where it remained until 1974. At that time the building was completely overpopulated, as it housed almost all municipal offices. It was then decided that the City Hall would be transferred to the large pavilion where the Grape Festival exhibitions were held. In 1974, the Municipal Museum began the transfer process. Under the coordination of