On this trip to Rio, I wanted to visit two different churches.

We have tried to visit the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Sebastian twice before but each time it was closed. It is a massive concrete brutalist cone standing 246 (75 meters) tall. It sweating has a seating capacity of 5,000. Removing the chairs, 20,000 can stand. It was built between 1964 and 1979. The Architect, Edgar Fonseca, wanted the exterior design to recall Mayan pyramids. I am not sure if he succeeded, but when you go inside you are struck by the four massive stained glass windows running floor to ceiling. They cast colored patterns on the floor on a sunny day. We had a sunny day. The patterns shift with moving clouds. It is a stunning effect.

St. Sebastian was the original parish of Rio. Later it was designated the Cathedral. The current cathedral is one of a line of several churches that have served that purpose.

As Rio grew the church decided it needed a second parish. That parish was Our Lady of Candelaria. A couple built the original Candelaria, histories differ over whether they were Spanish or Portuguese, who were in a terrible South Atlantic storm. They prayed for deliverance and promised to build a chapel at the first landfall they made. That landfall was Rio. They built a chapel on the flat ground near the port. St. Sebastion was on a hill. When St. Sebastian parish divided Candelaria became Rio’s second parish church. The original was from the early 1600s. By the mid-1700s the church fell into disrepair.

Construction on the current church started in 1775. It was baroque, but construction lasted more than a hundred years and the style migrated from Baroque to neo-Renaissance to Neo Classical. The dome was raised in 1877 and was the tallest structure in Rio. The church had the distinction of being the place where enslaved people could be baptized. Right now, it is an eclectic mix of styles. Baroque, neo-Renaissance, neo-Classical with Art Nouveau twin pulpits. I particularly like the way electric light has been added to illuminate part of the stained-glass window behind the altar, which is bricked up on the outside.

The Bronze Doors were added in 1901.