The cathedral on the Terreiro de Jesus is one of the earliest and best-preserved Jesuit churches in the Americas, built between 1657 and 1672 in a heavy mannerist style that prefigures the baroque exuberance of the city's later churches. The cut-stone facade — Portuguese limestone, shipped as ballast — is unique in Brazil; everything else here was built from local sandstone.
The interior is more restrained than São Francisco next door: cedar carving rather than gold, with seven side chapels off the nave. The sacristy and the small museum behind it are worth the supplementary ticket for the jacaranda furniture and Indo-Portuguese ivory carvings.