The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Portuguese: Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Carmo) is a Catholic church located in the historic center of Belém. The current building dates back to the 18th century and was designed by several architects, including Antônio Landi. It was restored in 2015 on the initiative of the Archdiocese of Belém do Pará in partnership with Vale and the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN). It was listed as a national heritage site by IPHAN in 1941.
History
In 1626, the Order of the Discalced Carmelites came from Maranhão and settled in Pará with the purpose of catechizing natives and soldiers' children. Initially, they built a small chapel in the first place they settled and later, on May 31, 1627, they established themselves on land located on North Street, now Siqueira Mendes, in an area known as Alagadiço da Juçara. The land, which was donated by Captain Major Bento Maciel Parente, included his residence, a wattle and daub country house. They built a small chapel on the site and used the house as a convent, which was the first in the captaincy. Its first vicar was André da Natividade.
In 1690, the buildings collapsed and were demolished to make way for a new church and convent. The then governor, Antônio de Albuquerque Coelho de Carvalho, solemnly laid the foundations of the new temple. The work was interrupted on July 2, 1696, due to the bishop's ban, as an excommunicate was buried there. The Carmelites had to appeal to the Portuguese Crown Court, but only obtained a favorable decision on April 21, 1700. After the conflict, the construction work continued and was definitively completed only in 1721, under the guidance of Friar Victoriano Pimentel. In the mid-18th century, the Carmelite priest Antônio de Azevedo left for Lisbon to commission a stone facade for the church. On July 24, 1750, master stonemasons José Pereira and Manuel Gomes were hired to carve it. The work was only completed in 1756 due to financial issues; the stone facade arrived in Belém, ready to be assembled. The facade installation work, however, caused irremediable problems to the existing building. The Italian architect Antonio Landi, who was in Belém, was called to solve the problem of the facade of the existing nave, which had to be demolished. The new structure, designed by Landi, had two naves, the main one and the transept. Only the high altar is known to have been preserved from the previous building. Some sources indicate that Landi's renovation was completed in 1766; other sources claim that the work began in that year, that the church was reopened in 1777, but that the definitive conclusion of the renovation only took place in 1784. In the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the church's architecture was renovated in accordance with the style of the time. The ceiling of the central nave was painted sky blue with gold stars, and the walls and altarpieces were decorated in the scagliola method, an inheritance of a practice already carried out by Landi in the 18th century. In the 1900s, the colonial tiled floor was replaced with hydraulic tiles.
The convent, located next to the church, with a square central cloister, underwent many changes over time and housed different activities. In the 19th century, it hosted the General Council of the Province and also the first seat of the Provincial Legislative Assembly. For a time, it housed the Colégio Paraense, a traditional boarding school in the city. It also served as the Asilo de Órfãs Desvalidas, a military hospital and a minor seminary.
By 1848, the Carmelite friars in Pará had been reduced to four. In 1891, after the death of Friar Caetano de Santa Rita Serejo, the last Carmelite still living in the north of Brazil, the Order was definitively extinguished in Pará; its assets remained under the jurisdiction of the bishops. In 1930, Father Angelo Cerri, with the support of Dom Irineu Joffily, bishop of Pará, brought the Salesian Order to administer the church and occupy the convent, where they still maintain a primary and secondary school. The church is currently under the responsibility of the Seeds of the Word Community and the school building has been transformed into a Community Mission House. The house is designed to host and promote retreats, as well as holding the Sabbatical Year School.