IGREJA E CONVENTO DE SÃO FRANCISCO

If you only have to visit one of the 365 churches in Salvador de Bahia, choose the beautiful São Francisco church with its convent. It is certainly the most emblematic church of the city and the symbol of its past magnificence that it is patiently trying to recover. Covered with 800 kg of gold, this complex is a pure example of colonial baroque and neoclassical architecture. It was the Franciscan friar Melchior de Santa Catarina who, after receiving the approval of Pope Sixtus V, decided to found the convent in 1585, and construction began two years later. In 1675, a reconstruction was decided upon under the aegis of Vicente das Chagas, the provincial vicar, and the architectural ensemble was considerably enlarged: the cloister was built first according to the plans of Francisco Pinheiro, then the choir of the church in 1708, and its walls and pillars around 1710, so that by 1713, the chapel was ready for worship. The rest of the body of the church, including the facade, was completed in 1720, date that is engraved on the frontispiece, and then began the work of interior decoration. In 1733, Jerônimo da Graça began the ceiling paintings, and in 1937, the tiles of the church's choir were installed, before the gilding work of the chapel and side altars began. In 1752, the cloister was completed and the library installed, but it was not until 1797 that the towers were completed and the bells and clock were added.

The walls of the convent's interior square (which houses a dozen cells that are still in use), around which runs a two-level gallery inspired by the Portuguese cloisters of the ^16th century, are covered with superb panels of antiqueazulejos depicting scenes opposing the philosophy of the Ancients and the Moderns, as well as various biblical episodes, some of the prints being attributed to Otto van Veen, master of Peter Rubens. Finally, the cloister's library ceiling is decorated with monumental paintings, and the refectory is covered withtiles dating from 1650.

In front of the church's facade stretches the Largo do Cruzeiro de São Francisco, a square with a calvary and surrounded by beautiful colonial houses that joins the Terreiro de Jesus. Some purists consider the Sao Francisco church to be overloaded with gilding invading its powerful arches. We will let the visitor appreciate.