Mosteiro de São Bento Picture 1

More information on Mosteiro de São Bento in Rio de Janeiro. Photo by: Lorando Labbe

Monastery of St. Benedict

Good conditions for the protection offered by the site at the top of the hill overlooking the Bay of Guanbara, besides the great weather - thanks to the wholesome winds of the bay, away from wetlands, represented strong motivations for the Benedictine monks and John Frei Pedro Ferraz Porcalho accepted in 1590, giving this wide strip of land, a nobleman Manuel de Brito, who there had built a chapel to Our Lady of Conception.

The Monastery of St. Benedict of NSDA Conception came about twenty years after the founding of the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1565.

In 1602, the church was renamed Our Lady of Montserrat
This compared to a convent museum represents, monastic in its simplicity, one of the finest architectural collections available in Brazil.

The harmony between the various parts built in different times derives from the Benedictine rule the school, which by tradition, only worth of artists and builders who belong to the Order. An exception was the author of the plan of the church and monastery, the chief engineer Francisco de Frias de Mesquita, commissioned in 1617, the project. He is credited with the simple and concise treatment of the frontispiece of which is the oldest part of the set, raised between 1666 and 1669, with the chorus.

Austerity and classicism linked to Mannerism is evident in the rigid symmetry in the vertical and horizontal divisions in the center of the stone facade with its triangular pediment, ledeado towers of square section, finished in pyramids.
The three-arched arcades, forming a covered porch belonging to the Benedictine traditions of the season. In 1880, they were closed with iron bars in the current German.

It's amazing the contrast between the austere aspect and purposefully unassuming from the outside, and the wealth of the interior with carvings phytomorphic baroque motif, overlaid with gold, and the exuberant rococo style, this carved in the altar, the transept and the Chapel Blessed Sacrament.

Address: Rua Dom Gerardo, 68 - Centro
Email: msbr@osb.org.br
WebSite: www.osb.org.br

http://www0.rio.rj.gov.br/riotur/pt/atracao/?CodAtr=1441

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