The Igreja de Santo António da Polana is the most arresting modernist building in Maputo. Designed by Nuno Craveiro Lopes and completed in 1962, it consists of a single conical concrete shell ribbed with vertical fins, narrowing toward an opening at the top — from a distance it looks like a lemon, or an upturned cooling tower, or a religious spaceship. There is nothing else like it in the city.
The interior, lit from above by the open apex and from below by ribbon windows around the base, is calmer than the exterior would suggest — a smooth bowl of pale concrete with a simple altar. The church remains in active use and is normally open during the day. It sits on Avenida Julius Nyerere at the eastern edge of Polana and is an easy detour off a walk through the quarter.