Chapel of the Conception

Jacobina, Bahia, Brazil

Religious Architecture

The church is built at the foot of the Serra da Conceição, which ends abruptly almost on the city streets. Hills and church – built on levelled ground shored up by retaining walls – create an overwhelming presence which dominates the surrounding neighbourhood. The open space is slightly out of line with the more recent street layout; it was originally hard-packed ground but was paved over with local sandstone in the mid-20th century. The church includes two sacristies which form a T-shape, and like other churches in the city it has side porches, one of which was turned into an aisle. The façade has a central body surmounted by a triangular pediment and side bodies corresponding to the bell-towers, the left one pyramidal and the right one unfinished, covered by a hipped roof. The pyramidal top was first used at the Convent of Cairu in 1660 and indicates a late use of 18th-century architectural vocabulary. According to Azevedo, despite its neoclassical style, the triangular pediment is a 20th-century intervention. The back façade has a round-arched niche which was probably used during open-air masses.