São Caetano do Sul to restore the Municipal Historical Museum at the De Nardi Mansion

The people of São Caetano do Sul are set to regain their Municipal Historical Museum. The museum is currently closed because time has caused serious deterioration to the 19th-century building, which will now undergo a careful, full restoration.

Partnership agreement to restore the De Nardi Mansion

At an event attended by municipal and state authorities, the Mayor of São Caetano signed a partnership agreement with EAM – Mutable Architecture Studio, formally authorising the start of restoration works on the building known as the De Nardi Mansion. “I’m passionate about history; we learn from those who came before us. Our shared memory gives us the foundations to move forward,” he said.

The President of the Pro-Memory Foundation welcomed the move: “It reaffirms the commitment to São Caetano’s historical heritage, which must be protected and shared.”

Speaking on behalf of the State Secretariat for Culture, Economy and Creative Industries, Executive Secretary Marcelo Assis also underlined the importance of restoring this cultural facility: “You don’t build the future by forgetting traditions. We are proud to be partners in this work,” he stated.

CultSP funding and the R$ 2 million investment

The restoration is being made possible through a CultSP public funding call, part of the State of São Paulo’s set of support mechanisms. It covers calls under the Cultural Action Programme (ProAC) as well as calls linked to the National Aldir Blanc Policy for the Promotion of Culture. Through this call, the project will receive a transfer of 2 million reais.

Works schedule and conservation approach

From next Monday (6/7), a team of restorers, joiners, painters and specialist installers will begin the structural treatment and aesthetic reintegration of the De Nardi Mansion. The aim is to conserve the building’s original features; it was listed in 2025 by Conprescs, the Municipal Council for the Preservation of São Caetano do Sul’s Historical, Cultural and Environmental Heritage.

The company expects to deliver the restored museum within 100 working days. During this period, it will carry out the restoration from top to bottom (from the roof down to the foundations) and from back to front (from the external courtyard through to the main façade).

The scope also includes full waterproofing of the roof and consolidation of sealing systems, alongside specialist treatment of original floors and the reinstatement of historic finishes.

About the Municipal Historical Museum of São Caetano do Sul

Established in 1959, the Municipal Historical Museum was officially inaugurated on 23 July 1960 by the then Mayor, Oswaldo Samuel Massei, on the corner of Baraldi Street and Rio Grande do Sul Street. On 20 August 1977, it was re-opened in the People’s Grove during celebrations marking São Caetano’s centenary. In December 1988, it moved into its current home, the De Nardi Mansion-an end-of-19th-century building constructed by the traditional De Nardi family, who arrived in the city with the first wave of Italian immigrants from the Province of Treviso.

The museum’s concept was devised by the sociologist José de Souza Martins, who from the outset defended the need for a place that could hold and safeguard part of São Caetano’s history.

Its collection includes a substantial number of historical museum objects that recover the tangible and intangible heritage of the people of southern São Caetano and bring to life different stages in the city’s development. There are nearly 6,000 items, including work tools, domestic utensils, clothing, portraits of early settlers, sacred objects, furniture, and items linked to São Caetano’s brickyards and ceramics industry.