Sao Bento Monastery

The Benedictines began building on this hill above the port in 1590, and the church that resulted is the standard Brazilian colonial contrast: a severe white facade of almost no decoration, and behind it an interior where every surface of the nave, chapels and choir is carved in cedar and covered in gold leaf, worked on from the 1660s into the eighteenth century, largely under Frei Domingos da Conceicao. The result is one of the most complete baroque interiors in the country. The community still sings the conventual mass in Gregorian chant on Sunday mornings, which is the reason many people come and the reason the church is full at that hour. A boys' school, the Colegio de Sao Bento, has operated on the site since the seventeenth century.

What you actually see

• A plain facade, a gilded interior - the standard colonial contrast at its sharpest.
• Carved cedar under gold leaf - worked from the 1660s into the next century.
• Sunday Gregorian chant - the sung conventual mass.
• A monastery still in use - a working community, not a museum.

When to go

All year; Sunday morning for the chant. An hour.

Honest expectations

This is a functioning monastery with dress rules and periods closed to visitors. Photography is restricted and flash forbidden. The Sunday mass fills early and is a service rather than a performance. The surrounding Centro is deserted at weekends.

Nearby

Praca Maua and the port museums are downhill; the Candelaria church is south.