Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos, Baroque church in Cidade Alta district, Natal, Brazil.

Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos is a Baroque church with an elliptical floor plan made of two intersecting volumes featuring curved frontispieces and bell towers set against white walls. The interior follows this geometric form, with the main nave and principal chapel having different sizes to create its distinctive shape.

According to historian Câmara Cascudo, the church was finished between 1713 and 1714, making it the second oldest Catholic temple in Natal. It served the Brotherhood of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos, a devotion that spread among enslaved Africans in colonial Brazil. Cascudo also records a cruzeiro, a wayside cross, built in front of the church. The state government listed and restored it in 1988, returning its original features.

The church was founded by a brotherhood devoted to Nossa Senhora do Rosário, the patroness of enslaved Africans, a devotion that spread in Brazil even where the enslaved population was small, as in Rio Grande do Norte. The historian Câmara Cascudo records that a cruzeiro, a wayside cross, was erected in front of the church, following a custom of the sertões.

The church is located near the Ribeira neighborhood in the upper part of town and holds regular religious services. Visitors should know that the elliptical shape of the building creates an unusual sense of space that becomes apparent when entering.

The floor plan combines two ellipses of different sizes, with the larger one housing the main nave and the smaller one containing the principal chapel. This mathematical design was a rare architectural choice at the time of its completion.