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Church of Our Lady of Protection of the Mulattoes
São Cristóvão, Sergipe, Brazil
Religious Architecture
The church was built in the late 18th century by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Protection of the Mulattoes, founded in 1690. There is insufficient information to determine the date of its construction. However, the lack of homogeneity between different sections indicates that it was built over many years and was never completed. Its simple design clearly reflects the limited resources of the brotherhood. The church is composed of a single nave and chancel, with a side aisle and a sacristy on the right of the altar. The tribunes and doors on the left indicate that another aisle was planned, but never built. The church interior has few decorative features. The tribunes, pulpit and choir railing are extremely simple. The high altar and the two altars on either side of the crossing arch are crudely designed and executed. The high altar is an example of craftsmanship based on the neoclassical altarpieces produced in Bahia, as Germain Bazin noted when he studied altars in Sergipe in this style. The simple façade is framed by cornerstones and a cymatium with a central door and three choir windows all framed in mortar. The façade is crowned by a pediment with volutes and there is a single tower on the right. The upper part of the tower, above the cymatium, was almost certainly built during a later period. This is evident in the juxtaposition of three different shapes: a polyhedron, a hexagon and a cylinder. This church has been under the protection of IPHAN since 1962.
Maria Berthilde Moura Filha