Built between 1902 and 1920 under the auspices of Mrs. Anna de Aquino Salles, wife of state president Francisco Salles. Standing on a triangular terrain, donated by Aarão reis, located at the confluence of the current Carandaí and Alfredo Balena avenues and Paraíba street, was the second church erected in Belo Horizonte. It was registered as cultural heritage site in March of 1979 by the State Institute of Historical and Artistic Patrimony of Minas Gerais (Iepha-MG).
The church was designed by Edgard Nascentes Coelho and the building plan was ceded by the municipality of the capital of Minas Gerais in 1901. The brotherhood of the Sacred Heart of Jesus entrusted the work to the Redemptorist priests. But the care of the church today is in the hands of the Maronite priests. It is known as the “Syrian church” and of the Arab community.
The church is in Flemish style, which nowadays is called Neogothic. It was built in a period that eclecticism prevailed in Brazil and, therefore, also has classic elements, such as columns with Greek influences, elements that especially comprise the facades, interfering in the volumetry, and a set of frames that crown columns and walls.
The structure is 10 meters wide, 22 meters long and has a tower 23 meters high. Internally, the gothic altar stands out (which came from Portugal), and the paintings of biblical scenes on the liner of the nave and on the side walls, as well as the Gothic altars on the side walls.
Huge marble columns support the lining in vaulted edge of the cross, ornamented with paintings of angels, evangelists and Doctors of the Church. The floor is made out of wood, framed by hydraulic tile corridors, both in two shades.
On the high altar stands the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; on the right side altar, the image of Our Lady of Guidance and on the left lateral altar the image of Saint Thérèse.
Roofs at different heights give rise to volumetric movement. The floor plan is in the shape of a Latin cross. In the atrium, to the left, we have the baptismal font and to the right we have the spiral wooden staircase leading to the choir. With a single nave and the span that separates the nave from the main chapel, this space that corresponds in floor plan to the arms of the cross, has lateral chapels and to the center a vaulted dome. This summit is not common in Brazilian churches.
On the façades, it has porticos and windows with framed ogival yards. And square base pinnacles, following the pattern of the tower.