Capela do Menino Jesus e Santa Luzia, Gothic Revival chapel in São Paulo, Brazil.
The Capela do Menino Jesus e Santa Luzia stands at Rua Tabatinguera 104 in the Sé district, built in Neo-Gothic style by Italian architect Domenico Delpiano and inaugurated on 13 December 1901. Delpiano also designed the main altar and a Byzantine-style grille. Florentine painter Orestes Sercelli produced the ornamental works inside.
Anna Maria de Almeida Lorena Machado, great-granddaughter of the Count of Sarzedas, lost a Child Jesus of Prague image in a shipwreck returning from Paris and recovered it floating near a beach. She vowed to build a chapel, and the Capela do Menino Jesus e Santa Luzia was inaugurated on 13 December 1901, the feast of Saint Lucy. The Italian architect Domenico Delpiano designed it; it was the city's second Gothic-style religious building, after the Santa Casa de Misericórdia chapel of 1885. Anna Maria died on 11 June 1903.
The chapel preserves traditional Latin Mass services with Gregorian chants that happen every Sunday, keeping historical Catholic liturgical practices alive. Visitors can experience these ancient singing forms and religious rituals firsthand.
The chapel sits at Rua Tabatinguera 104, in the Sé district of central São Paulo, a short walk from the Sé metro station. The Sunday Gregorian chant rite begins at 16h Brasília time; ordinary rites are held daily. The building is a municipal and state listed heritage site (CONPRESP and CONDEPHAAT, 13 June 1994).
The chapel stands on land that belonged to Anna Maria de Almeida Lorena Machado, great-granddaughter of the Conde de Sarzedas, a former governor of the São Paulo captaincy. She lost her Child Jesus of Prague image in a shipwreck returning from Paris and found it floating near a beach while the family waited for rescue. She died on 11 June 1903, about two years after the chapel opened.
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