Igreja Nossa Senhora d’Ajuda, Catholic church in Arraial da Ajuda, Brazil

Igreja Nossa Senhora d'Ajuda is a Catholic church in Arraial d'Ajuda, Porto Seguro, Bahia. Rebuilt in 1772 in stone and lime in Baroque style by the ombudsman José Xavier Machado Monteiro, it has a pyramidal-topped bell tower on the right side. The frontispiece carries volutes around a central medallion of Nossa Senhora da Ajuda, and the sandstone portal holds a panelled wooden door.

Jesuit priests Vicente Rodrigues and Francisco Pires built a chapel here in 1549, considered Brazil's first Marian sanctuary. In 1772 the ombudsman José Xavier Machado Monteiro rebuilt it in stone and lime in Baroque style, adding a pyramidal-roofed bell tower on the right. IPHAN listed it in 1968 under process 800-T-68.

The church continues to serve as a gathering place for religious ceremonies and community events, reflecting the faith that shapes daily life in the village. Locals see it as the heart of their spiritual identity and tradition.

The church stands in Arraial d'Ajuda, a district of Porto Seguro reached by ferry across the Buranhém River. The interior can be visited; the adjoining lookout offers views over the coast. Go in daylight to see the sandstone portal and the pyramidal bell tower.

Two Jesuit accounts explain the Fonte da Senhora differently. Vicente Rodrigues wrote that he and Francisco Pires received the fresh-water spring as a gift from God; Antonio Pires recorded that a tree cut beneath the altar threw the woodcutter unharmed and the spring rose from its stump, already working miracles.