Igreja do Divino Espírito Santo, Colonial church in Santo Antonio district, Recife, Brazil.
The Igreja do Divino Espírito Santo is a colonial church in Santo Antonio district built as a single rectangular space with lateral corridors and upper galleries running along both sides. Inside, five altars dating to the 19th century create focal points throughout the interior.
This building was constructed between 1686 and 1690 on land previously occupied by a French Calvinist church and initially housed a Jesuit school. The Jesuits were expelled in 1759, marking a significant change in the building's purpose.
The church is run by the Venerable Brotherhood of the Divine Holy Spirit, which moved its patron saint here from the Igreja da Conceição dos Militares on 8 September 1855 in a solemn procession with the Blessed Sacrament carried under a canopy. The brotherhood received the ruined Jesuit college from provincial president José Bento da Cunha e Figueiredo on 27 July 1855, on condition of restoring the church.
The church faces Praça Dezessete, the former Jesuit college courtyard, in Santo Antônio. The Brotherhood of the Divino Espírito Santo has held the building since 1855, when it received it from provincial president José Bento da Cunha e Figueiredo on condition of restoring the church. The front rooms along Rua do Imperador Pedro II are rented to local shops.
The church's front porch was demolished on 30 October 1823 by order of the Pernambuco government, which wanted a larger courtyard for the college, today's Praça Dezessete. IPHAN excavations in 1977 found the old Jesuit foundations beneath the square. The façade was set back, so the present front is not the 1690 one.
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