Mosteiro de São Bento
Gold-drenched colonial church prized for its Sunday Gregorian chant and Baroque woodcarving.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Mosteiro de Sao Bento in Rio de Janeiro starts at the gift shop, with a small black cross stamped C S P B and the monastic story of two attempted poisonings behind the Medal of Saint Benedict. It moves inside the gold-covered church built for that same saint, tracing the enslaved and mixed-race colonial artisans who carved it despite being barred from leading the workshops, among them a free craftsman named Mestre Valentim. Listen for the two silver chandeliers cast in the late 1700s, each said to weigh as much as an adult man.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Igreja da Venerável Ordem Terceira de São Francisco da Penitencia
Baroque lay brotherhood chapel with a ceiling entirely carved and gilded in gold leaf.
Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Glória do Outeiro
Figure-eight baroque church of twin octagons, designed by a military engineer and lined with blue-and-white tile.
Convento de Santo Antônio
Baroque convent hewn from the bedrock of a hill that was later carted away for landfill.
Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Candelária
Domed baroque church built over two centuries from a shipwrecked captain's storm-time vow.
Praça XV de Novembro
Colonial stone fountain crowned by a small pyramid, carved by one of Brazil's first great sculptors.
Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro
Conical modernist landmark with four soaring stained-glass walls that flood the interior with shifting colored light.