Parish Church of Saint George

Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil

Religious Architecture

The parish church is in the city centre located on one of the sides of a square that faces the sea, as if it feared the open water seen from the tower and would rather look past neighbouring rooftops to the Cathedral of Saint Sebastian. The first church established by Dom Pero Fernandes Sardinha was built in the 16th century and, at the behest of the local residents, was rebuilt in the late 17th century (1697). It has a T-shaped floor plan comprising a single nave, a tower and two sacristies. In 1913, Ilhéus was promoted to a bishopric, but that new status was unable to protect the parish church, which was twice subject to renovation: in 1912-16, a period of major urban reforms, the right sacristy was demolished to widen the street; and, in 1950, a parish hall was built. Typical 17th-century features were nevertheless kept in the façade: the small square bays framed by ashlar borders with projections at the corners, the portal with a straight lintel and a carved guilloche and the pyramidal tower, used for the first time at the Convent of Cairu in 1660. Inside, the two niches in the wall of the crossing arch also indicate the age of its floor arrangement, probably influenced by the third development stage of the Jesuit plan, according to Lúcio Costa’s classification.