Estufa das Bromélias Roberto Burle Marx (Bromeliad House, Rio Botanical Garden)

The bromeliad house belongs to the Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, which traces its origins to a decree of 13 June 1808 in which the Prince Regent Dom João, later King João VI, took possession of the Engenho da Lagoa estate to create an acclimatisation garden. Its first purpose was to grow spices such as nutmeg, pepper and cinnamon. Named the Real Horto in October 1808 and later the Royal, then Imperial, Botanical Garden after independence, it has been protected by the national heritage institute IPHAN since 1937 and was included by UNESCO in a biosphere reserve in 1992. Today it is a research institution, the Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro.

The greenhouse bears the name of Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994), the landscape architect who made native tropical vegetation a structural element of modern Brazilian garden design and who led numerous plant-collecting expeditions into the rainforest with botanists. More than fifty plants carry his name.

The garden's bromeliad collection, the Bromeliário, is divided between outdoor beds and the Roberto Burle Marx greenhouse, which shelters the species needing more protection. The greenhouse is a building arranged around an open inner space.

The greenhouse is one of several themed glasshouses in the garden, alongside the Orquidário, built in the late nineteenth century, remodelled in the 1930s and restored in 1998; the house for insectivorous plants, described as one of the garden's oldest themed greenhouses; and a cactus house.

Described as the largest bromeliad collection in Rio de Janeiro, the Bromeliário holds around 1,700 specimens from South and Central America. Many come from the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest, others from the restingas, coastal vegetation on sand, and from the caatinga, the semi-arid scrubland of north-eastern Brazil. This range of habitats shows the family in its full breadth, from epiphytes clinging to tree trunks to terrestrial species of poor soils. The collection is part of a garden that cultivates some 6,500 species across 54 hectares, some of them endangered, and that also displays orchids, carnivorous plants and cacti.

The greenhouse stands in the arboretum of the Jardim Botânico, in the district of the same name in Rio's South Zone. The garden has two gates on Rua Jardim Botânico, at no. 1008, open daily, and at no. 920, open at weekends and on public holidays, plus entrances on Rua Pacheco Leão. Admission is charged. The nearby Orquidário and the insectivorous plant house pair naturally with the Bromeliário. The garden offers self-guided trails, such as the Atlantic Forest and palm trails of about an hour and a half each, and free Friday guided walks on a theme that changes monthly. Half a day leaves time for the avenue of imperial palms and the views of Corcovado.