National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage

The National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute is a heritage register of the federal government of Brazil. It is responsible for the preservation of buildings, monuments, structures, objects and sites, as well as the register and safeguard of intangible cultural heritage deemed of historic or cultural importance to the country.

IPHAN maintains 1,047 sites, which include historic buildings, city centers, and landscapes. It additional lists a growing number of intangible cultural heritage entities.The presidency of the institute was held by only two individuals over its first forty years. Rodrigo Melo Franco led SPHAN/IPHAN from 1937 until his retirement in 1967; his successor was the architect Renato Soeiro, who led the institute from 1967 to 1979.