The São Francisco Church and Convent of Salvador () is located in the historical centre of Salvador, in the State of Bahia, Brazil. The ornate Church of the Third Order of Saint Francis sits adjacent to the convent. The friars of the Franciscan Order arrived in Salvador in 1587 and constructed a convent and church on the site. This structure was destroyed by the Dutch during the Dutch invasions of Bahia in the next century; Father Vicente das Chagas initiated the current structure in 1686, which was completed in the 18th century. The Franciscan church and convent have the largest number of azulejos, 55,000, of any church in Latin America.
The convent and its church are important colonial monuments in Brazil. It was listed as a historic structure by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage in 1938. The convent, church, and Church of the Third Order are one of the Seven Wonders of Portuguese Origin in the World and form integral parts of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Center of Salvador.
History
The friars of the Franciscan Order arrived in Salvador in 1587 at the invitation of Dom Antônio Muniz Barreiros, third Bishop of Bahia. Their arrival in Bahia followed that of the Jesuits, who arrived with Tomé de Sousa, Brazil's first governor-general, and constructed their college and chapel of the Jesuits 1564. Friar Melchior de Santa Catarina, Custodian Priest of Olinda, sent an appeal in 1585 to Pope Sixtus V to establish a convent on the site. The Franciscans initially settled into various residences and chapels on the site of the present Franciscan church, convent, and Third Order church. Melchior de Santa Catarina sent Antônio da Ilha and Francisco de São Boaventura, Franciscan brothers, to Salvador the same year; construction of a convent began in 1587.
The Franciscans soon built a convent and church, but these were destroyed during the Dutch invasions of Bahia in the 17th century. The works on the current convent began in 1686 under Father Vicente das Chagas following a grandiose design that took decades to complete.
Construction on the present-day church and convent began in 1708, as evidenced by the placement of a foundation stone. The structure was completed in 1723. The interior was decorated by several artists during a great part of the 18th century. Most decoration of the church and convent were finished by 1755. The construction of the Church of the Third Order of Saint Francis, located immediately adjacent to the Franciscan church, was carried out in parallel between 1702 and 1870.
Structure
The Church of São Francisco of Salvador is constructed of Bahian sandstone, including the walls, pilasters, and façade. Some sandstone existed on the Itapagipe Peninsula in the 18th century, but later sandstone elements were brought from Jaguaribe and Velha Boipeba in the interior of Bahia. The eight massive columns that support the choir are of Bahian sandstone and display clasts characteristic of sandstone the region. The use of local sandstone is in contrast to the extensive use of Portuguese lioz limestone used in the Cathedral Basilica of Salvador and the Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Praia, now the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.
The Church of São Francisco of Salvador is unusual among Franciscan houses of Northeast Brazil in that it has a nave with three aisles, while most other Franciscan churches of the region have only one aisle. Three lateral chapels are located on each of the lateral aisles. The church has a rectangular shape without protruding transept arms and a main chapel. The floorplan seems influenced by the São Francisco Church of Oporto (actually a Gothic building) and the Jesuit plans of São Roque in Lisbon and the Jesuit Church of Salvador. The church consists of a nave and chancel; transept; choir; lateral corridors; a vestibule which serves as an entrance; a sala do capítulo, a large cloister; which serves as a meeting room for the order; sacristy; library; and numerous rooms that serve the convent.