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Parish Church of Our Lady of the Conception of António Dias
Ouro Preto, Vila Rica, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Religious Architecture
According to tradition, the bandeirante António Dias built the original chapel in honour of Our Lady of the Conception, built in the same period as the other chapels of the Serra do Ouro Preto. It is known that it served as a parish church as early as 1707. In the early 1720s, when the king began to consider the creation of a bishopric in the Minas region, the residents in the parish, supported by Vila Rica’s town council, decided to rebuild the church: not only because of its state of “decay” and because it was “so small that not even a fourth part of the residents in that parish fit into it”, but also because the church had the chance to be raised to the status of a cathedral. The work began in 1727, based on a project attributed to Manoel Francisco Lisboa; his son, O Aleijadinho, was buried under the graves of this church in 1814. There is no precise data about the chronology of the works, which seem to have advanced at a slow pace. One of the walls at risk of collapsing was rebuilt in stone and mortar in 1745 and “the roof of the new sacristy” was undergoing repairs in 1752-1753. References are also scarce regarding the interior decoration,. It is known that from 1758 to 1765 Jerônimo Félix Teixeira and the Braga-born Felipe Vieira had a hand in the high altar and that the painting and gilding of the chancel (which already included rococo elements) were finished in 1772. Among the eight King João V-style altars in the nave are pieces that have survived from the original parish church. The only information available relates to the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary, to which José Coelho de Noronha and Manoel Gonçalves made “repairs” and added gilding between 1746 and 1750. The painting of the vaulted ceiling was not done until the 19th century. The building was showing signs of decay by 1794 and the vicar asked Queen Maria I to financially support repairs on the frontispiece, tower and stairs. The façade is divided into three separate bodies by the use of cornerstones and pilasters. It has two bell towers, a simple portal, a four-lobed oculus and two windows in the choir. The numerous alterations made in the 19th century did not seem to make any significant changes to the original structure; on the other hand, the 18th-century decorative elements of the interior were repainted – they were removed by IPHAN in 1949.
Cláudia Damasceno Fonseca