Saint Francis of Assisi Church

The construction of Belo Horizonte city was a milestone in Brazilian urbanism and became one of the symbols of the new times with the proclamation of the Republic. A city planned by man and implemented on the chosen territory.

Influenced by European modernist ideas, intellectuals and Brazilian artists promoted, in 1922, the Week of Modern Art, which introduced new parameters in the arts and architectural production. Later, during the dictatorship of President Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945), industrialization and the growth of the urban mass increased, within a developmentalist process, through young politicians and architects who sought to insert Brazil on stage world.

In this context, the future president Juscelino Kubitschek was appointed mayor of Belo Horizonte (1940-1945) by the state’s intervener, Mr. Benedito Valadares. Then a change of focus began in the concept of public administration, working on the infrastructure of the city, on the expansion beyond the Avenida del Contorno, with new roads, urban proposals such as Pampulha’s Architectural Complex, and, mainly, showing the creative possibilities of our people.

To project the buildings of this complex, Kubitschek called young architect Oscar Niemeyer, who had already worked on the team that planned the conception of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Rio de Janeiro. The projects for the Pampulha are considered as a revolution in the national modern architecture, when introducing curves in the European rectilinear rationalist proposal. In 2016, the buildings were considered as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The church has a nave covered with a parabolic vault, a rectangular main chapel flanked by two vaulted volumes. The bell tower is clear of the body of the church, made of concrete and with two wooden cell sides. Connecting the church to the tower, there is a marquee supported by iron “V” columns. The entrance door is a metal square with glass and, above, has metal sunshades to protect the interior from insolation.

The whole church is covered in tesserae of soft colors, variations of blue and white, with drawings by the plastic artist Paulo Werneck. Internally, it is lined with wooden lambris, a panel at the back of the high altar and pictures of the sacred way. On the external rear wall, the drawings of the tiles, the baptistery and the pulpit are by the painter Cândido Portinari. In the baptistery is the bronze relief work “Eve’s Temptation,” by Alfredo Ceschiatti. The interior floor, in marble and granite, moves sinuous towards the outside of the church, which is surrounded by the also winding landscape of the landscape architect Burle Marx.

The building was practically ready (1945), but to escape the symbolism of the religious architecture of Minas Gerais, it was not immediately consecrated by the Catholic Church, remaining closed and unused for some years. After Kubitschek became president of the republic, he achieved the consecration of the Church (1959) and the first religious ceremony was his grandson’s baptism.