Church of São Francisco de Assis

Niemeyer's curving concrete church on the Pampulha lake, with Portinari murals

The Church of São Francisco de Assis is the most photographed building in Belo Horizonte and one of the foundational works of Brazilian modernism. Niemeyer designed it in 1943 as a series of low parabolic concrete vaults, abandoning the right angles and pointed arches of traditional church architecture entirely. On the rear exterior wall, the painter Cândido Portinari executed a long azulejo tile mural — a hallucinatory blue-and-white representation of the life of Saint Francis.

Inside, the church is small and quiet. Portinari's painting of Saint Francis appears again behind the altar — a darker-skinned Francis than Catholic iconography traditionally allows, which is part of what scandalised the church at the time. Open during daylight; the lakefront walk continues around the building.

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A story
When Niemeyer finished the church in 1943 the Catholic Archdiocese refused to consecrate it, calling its sinuous concrete vault and Portinari's mural of a Black Saint Francis 'a devil's bomb shelter'. The building stood unblessed and largely unused for nearly 16 years before the Vatican finally relented and consecrated it in 1959.

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