The Church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Homens Pretos e de São Benedito is a colonial-style Catholic church located at Rua Uruguaiana, 77, in the center of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On its second floor, it houses the Museu do Negro, which exhibits objects linked to the presence of African slaves in the city.

Historic
Brotherhood of Blacks and Browns The “Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary of Black Men” was founded in 1640, being the brotherhood that sheltered the blacks and browns of Rio de Janeiro. At that time, it operated in the “Igreja Jesuítica de São Sebastião”, on the Castelo hill (currently demolished), from which they had to leave around 1700. The brotherhood built a new church between 1701 and 1737 on the so-called Rua da Vala (now Uruguaiana). ), a street that, at the time, marked the limits of the city. The current chancel is the result of a reconstruction around 1772.

Cathedral (1737-1808)
The episcopal seat, together with the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament, which had already moved from the Church of São Sebastião, on Castelo Hill, to several others in the city, settled in the Church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Homens Pretos e de São Benedito in 1737 , despite protests from the brotherhood (which, however, continued to function in the same church). In 1808, with the arrival of Dom João VI to Rio de Janeiro, the Church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Homens Pretos e São Benedito lost its cathedral status to the Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte do Carmo, closer to the Royal Palace.

City Hall Headquarters (1812-1825)
During a period of 13 years, between 1812 and 1825, the City Council of Rio de Janeiro functioned in the premises of the church.

Reformation (19th century)
In the 19th century, the church underwent a major renovation, in which the interior decoration in gilded carving was redone by Antônio José Monteiro in around 1861. The facade was also altered, with the total reconstruction of the two large towers. The front door from the beginning of the 18th century was maintained, very important aesthetically as it is a beautiful and rare example in the Mannerist (late-Renaissance) style, instead of the Baroque style that predominated in the city’s churches.

Fire in 1967
Currently, the church has virtually no interior decoration, due to a terrible fire in 1967 that destroyed the altars and carvings of the chapels, walls and columns. Tragically, the so-called Museu do Negro, which operated on the second floor of the church and which contained important documents related to the history of the brotherhood, was also lost in the fire.

The interior was rebuilt by architects Lúcio Costa and Sérgio Porto. Despite the tragedy, the naked appearance of the interior demonstrates the importance of gilded carving in the construction of the interior space in Brazilian (and Portuguese) Baroque churches: without carving, the interior of a church of that time would lose all meaning.

Personalities linked to the brotherhood
As a brotherhood of blacks and browns, many prominent members of this community formed part of the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary of Black Men in colonial times, such as the sculptor and urban planner Valentim da Fonseca e Silva (buried in the church in 1813 and remembered at the entrance to a bronze plaque) and the composer and conductor Father José Maurício Nunes Garcia, who was the church’s musical director (1798-1808), when it was still the city’s cathedral.

Reopening of the Museu do Negro in 2013
On May 13, 2013, the Museu do Negro, which operated on the second floor of the church and which had been destroyed in the 1967 fire, was reopened to the public, after renovation.

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