A tiny chapel built by the Jesuits in 1549 — only fourteen years after the Portuguese established the settlement, making this one of the oldest surviving religious buildings in Brazil. The whitewashed façade and squat bell turret are unchanged in their basic form for nearly five centuries. The interior is small, plain, and bare; the appeal is the age and setting rather than any decorative programme.
The chapel sits at the windward edge of the bluff with the best sea view on the plateau. The Jesuits built it for the use of the African slaves and freed Black population of the early settlement — São Benedito (Saint Benedict the Moor) was their patron saint. It is still occasionally used for Masses in the Afro-Brazilian tradition.