Church of Our Lady of the Conception of the Mulattoes

São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

Religious Architecture

The construction of the church began in 1743 on land donated by the merchant José Pereira at the top of Rua Grande. Due to misunderstandings with the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary of Black People, which housed the image of Our Lady of the Conception, it was only finished in 1762. It was a fine church with a single nave, a façade with two large square domed towers, a double architrave in the middle and at the top, framing the narrower central body, a simple portal and a large curved window surmounted by a fine rococo pediment. It was demolished in 1930 in order to widen the street. From the sacristy came the magnificent tile panel that is now to be found in the Church of Saint Anne. This shows a cartouche of Our Lady of Mercy above another of Saint Martial, the patron saint of fire prevention, blue, surrounded by polychrome garlands and crowned by a vase and pelmets in the late rococo style, which Santos Simões regards as “the finest known examples, corresponding to the best things that were produced in the realm around 1795”.

• Rafael Moreira