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Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary (Chapel of Padre Faria)
Ouro Preto, Vila Rica, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Religious Architecture
The name by which this church is mostly known (the Chapel of Padre Faria) has no historical justification. For Diogo de Vasconcelos, the chapel in Ouro Preto at which Father João de Faria Fialho officiated was the Chapel of Saint John the Baptist; the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary did not emerge until 1710, after the priest had moved to Guaratinguetá (São Paulo). According to tradition, this chapel had come into being under rather peculiar circumstances: due to the murder of a priest who had celebrated Mass at the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Success (near Ouro Preto, at a place whose history is indirectly linked to that of Padre Faria), its use was prohibited and so residents transferred the image of Our Lady of Childbirth to a new chapel, made of rammed earth and wood, which they built in the present-day Bairro de Padre Faria. The Brotherhood of the White Men of Our Lady of the Rosary was established there In 1740, after being expelled from the Church of Saint Iphigenia by the black people of the same brotherhood. They rebuilt the chapel in canga (a kind of spongy iron ore), enriched it and changed its dedication to that of Our Lady of the Rosary, “but Our Lady of Childbirth or of Good Success remained the patron saint of the Chapel”. Apart from those details, the only information available about the chapel’s history relates to the dates carved on the bell (1750) and on the large Papal Cross located in the chapel’s forecourt (1756). In this outer area, there is also the small bell tower, with a bulbous pyramid roof. The portal and two windows in the façade have stone frames and cymatia; the cornerstones, pinnacles and the cross on top of the gable are also made of stone. The interior has two fine altars and altarpieces gilded in the King João V style. The painting on the ceiling of the nave dates from 1930; the painting on the ceiling of the chancel (depicting the enthronement of the Virgin Mary and other Marian scenes) is from the same time as the wood carving and is one of the rarest examples of baroque ceilings to be found in the central mining region. Following the listing of the chapel in 1939, IPHAN remodelled it several times. One of these interventions consisted in the replacement of the ogee pediment (probably an adaptation from the 19th century) with a simple gable, like those that can be seen in the Chapels of Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist.
Cláudia Damasceno Fonseca