Collaborate
Parish Church of Our Lady of Nazareth (Cachoeira do Campo)
Ouro Preto, Vila Rica, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Religious Architecture
Cachoeira do Campo is one of the oldest settlements in the Minas region. The present-day church was built in the first half of the 18th century in stone masonry and has door and window frames made of cut stone. The floor plan is rectangular, with a nave, chancel, sacristy and rooms at the sides. The original façade was altered in 1849; the ogee pediment has a cruciform oculus and is surmounted by a cross; the two bell towers are square, and the portal has a depressed-arched lintel. The choir is reached by way of an external stone staircase. The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, on the left-hand side, was added in the second half of the 19th century. The interior is notable for the beautiful series of altarpieces, about which there is very little information available. It is known that, in 1726, the woodcarver Manoel Ferreira de Matos was hired by the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament, probably for the construction of the main altar, which most closely corresponds to that period in terms of its style (profuse decoration with phytomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs). The crossing arch has carved woodwork in the same stylistic patterns as the altarpieces. The vaulted ceiling of the chancel has a decorative painting (the Crowning of the Virgin Mary) by the Portuguese artist António Rodrigues Belo, who also painted the eight panels of the chancel (depictions of the Gospel Writers and of Jesus’ childhood, in addition to vegetal motifs) which date from 1755. The ceilings of the nave and sacristy also display paintings from the first half of the 18th century. The pulpits are made of polychrome wood and date back to the late 18th or early 19th cen- tury. All of this great artistic richness justified this church being listed in the 1940s, whereas the protection afforded to the parish churches of the other districts in Ouro Preto is much more recent.
Cláudia Damasceno Fonseca