Church
Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of Black Men
Rebuilt Black brotherhood church standing in for an eighteenth-century chapel torn down for city beautification.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of Black Men in São Paulo follows a brotherhood of enslaved and freed Black men who, denied a place to worship in 1721, petitioned the Portuguese king and then built a rammed-earth chapel of their own, finished by 1737 through a hermit's fundraising trek to Minas Gerais. You'll hear about the funerals, renamed saints and yearly Congo king elections the chapel hosted for nearly two centuries. It traces what city hall decided about that plaza in 1903, and how the brotherhood answered.
This audio guide was created using AI.