Object description

The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception , or the Basilica of the Conception, is a church in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. It is affiliated with the Catholic Church and was built in 1623, making it one of the oldest parishes in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of São Salvador da Bahia. It was the first church built by the first governor-general of Brazil, Tomé de Sousa. The current structure was prefabricated in Portugal and assembled in Salvador; its construction began in 1739 and ended in the mid 19th century. The art historian Germain Bazin classifies the church as Portuguese in design, rather than part of the Bahian tradition of religious structures of the 17th and 18th century.