Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black People

The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black People is recognizable by its pastel blue facade and twin bell towers, perched steeply above the lower city of Salvador. Enslaved people built this structure with their own hands at night, after finishing their forced labor elsewhere in the city. Because they were barred from white churches, they harvested stones from the sea and hauled them here to construct their own sanctuary. They buried their dead beneath the floorboards, keeping their community together in death.