Capela Dourada
Interesting facts
- Two large panels show the arrest and death of Franciscan martyrs, and at some unknown date an indignant worshipper scratched out the faces of their tormentors.
- One side altar holds a life-size figure of the Lord of the Steps, Christ carrying the cross, set with inlaid rubies.
- The chapel was built because the lay brothers of the Third Order were wealthy enough to give their novices a chapel of their own.
- Its cornerstone was laid by the colonial governor, Captain General Caetano de Melo Castro, and its first Mass was said before the building was even finished.
- By the time the work ended in 1724, the chapel's gilded decoration far outshone that of the convent church it was built beside.
- The Order's account books date its painted panels to 1699–1700 and the ceiling lining panels to 1701–1702, though the painters' names were never recorded.
- The main altar has a central niche for a large crucifix flanked by niches for the twin physician saints Cosmas and Damian.
- The ceiling lining underwent serious repairs in 1776–1777, carried out carefully enough that its painted coffers survived intact.
- Besides its jacaranda furniture, the sacristy has a marble table and a washbasin imported from Estremoz in Portugal.
Why it is worth it
Step inside the Capela Dourada — the "Golden Chapel" — and almost every surface glows. Walls, arches, altars and ceiling are covered in carved wood finished with gold leaf, framing painted panels and blue-and-white tile pictures. It is regarded as the first church in Brazil to be entirely lined with Baroque decoration, a showpiece of colonial Baroque in north-eastern Brazil.
The chapel belongs to the Third Order of Saint Francis and was built as the Chapel of the Novices (Capela dos Noviços) beside the Franciscan Convent of Santo Antônio. Its cornerstone was laid on 13 May 1696, it was opened on 15 September 1697, and work on its decoration went on until 1724. The Portuguese captain Antônio Fernandes de Matos directed the construction. Luís Machado worked on the ceiling and arches, and Antônio Martins Santiago carved the main chapel in 1698. Unnamed painters supplied the oil panels of the coffered ceiling around 1700, showing saints and personifications of virtues such as Faith, Hope and Charity, while azulejo panels line the side walls. The main chapel received its gilding from Manuel de Jesus Pinto in 1799; the sacristy keeps furniture of jacaranda wood made in 1762.
Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, lies where the Capibaribe and Beberibe rivers reach the Atlantic; its islands and dozens of bridges have earned it the name "Venice of Brazil". First recorded in 1537, it was for a time the capital of Dutch Brazil until the Portuguese retook it in 1654. The chapel stands in the old core of the city, within a Franciscan complex that also includes the church of the Third Order and a museum of sacred art.
Getting there
The Capela Dourada is in the historic centre of Recife, Pernambuco, about 1 km from the city centre. The nearest airport is Recife/Guararapes – Gilberto Freyre International Airport (REC), about 9 km to the south.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Oficina Brennand 10.7 km · sculpture-garden
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Capela Dourada, also called Capela dos Noviços, is a chapel of the Franciscan Order located in the city of Recife, capital of the Pernambuco State, Brazil within the set of buildings of the Convent and Church of Santo Antônio, that includes the Church of the Ordem Terceira de São Francisco and the Franciscan Museum of Religious Art.
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