Remarkable churches

January 21, 2021

Where to begin and end with this one? So many churches scattered between the layers of all of the other buildings that comprise Sao Paolo.

There was one we walked by often, and I was really hoping to look inside. I'm so glad I did. There was a sign as we walked in saying they did tours of the crypt. What? That's a thing? After all the times we walked past it, we finally went inside on the last day of our trip. Totally worth it.

I first saw it on our second day there, and I thought it was "freaky". It is extremely ornamental, but I didn't even take pictures from the front because it had a really bad vibe. The entire courtyard was filled with a camp of tents and blankets of homeless people, I felt like they were staring at us. All of the side entrances were gated off and had some garbage strewn around. This first picture is the back of the church.

I was drawn to this door, it is at least 20 feet tall, and so skinny. And in the middle on the right is what looks like a lot of claw marks. My imagination went far with that one. The entire building is just the right color that it appears to absorb light and stay dark even when the sun shines down.

This is the front courtyard that transforms into a homeless camp every evening.

It looks different from every side!

This is the crypt. Apparently before the pandemic hit they would hold concerts down there on Saturday nights. That sounds pretty wild. I think the tour guide said it was stringed instruments, not a grunge band kind of music.

This first picture is looking down while on the stairs.

Oh the things that churches have as a basement.

There were 3-4 statues like this.

I was cranking my neck looking every which way at the amazing details all over. I tried to lighten the pictures, it was subdued lighting down there. And eerily quiet.

So many lines and patterns and colors to make my eyes dance as I tried to take it all in.

My church has a hymn called A Poor Wayfaring Man of grief.

The first verse is: A poor, wayfaring man of grief hath often crossed me on my way, who sued so humbly for relief that I could never answer nay. I had not power to ask his name, whereto he went or whence he came; yet there was something in his eye that won my love, I knew not why.

This man was that guy. He had an incredibly peaceful look in his eyes. We both felt something about this man. We walked by and I then went back a few feet to see if he would let me take his picture. It was a moment stolen out of time, we were walking by and it was like the rest of the sidewalk faded away. I don't think I can properly write to describe the experience, it should be it's own blog. It was one of those things that the heart feels more than the eye sees.

This yellow one has a unique name. Church of Our Lady of The Rosary of Black Men. It has a temporary wall around it, and its not uncommon. Behind the wall is a place where they have set up for the homeless to take and shower and I'm not sure what else.

This building looks like it may have been a church at one time. It was so terribly abandoned. I wanted to just sit and stare at it while imagining it's story.