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A vow
A captain brought the statue from Portugal in 1740
In 1740, while pursuing a vow, Captain Teodósio Rodrigues de Faria of the Portuguese Navy brought a statue of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim from Setúbal to Salvador. A brotherhood was founded, and a church built to house it.
The hill
The church sits on the only line of hills on the Itapagipe Peninsula
Construction began in 1740 and the church was inaugurated in 1754, with the towers finished around 1772. It stands on an elevation now called the Colina Sagrada, the Holy Mount.
Tiles
Large tile panels on the walls show the life of Christ
There are 28 large azulejo panels on the lateral walls, painted by Tomáz do Carmo in Lisbon in 1855. In 1873 the lower façade was covered in white and yellow tiles meant to resemble those of the Church of Saint Francis.
28large azulejo panels on the lateral walls
The ceiling
A painted ceiling shows people giving thanks for surviving a shipwreck
The wooden ceiling was painted by the Bahia artist Franco Velasco between 1818 and 1820. It shows people thanking Our Lord of Bonfim for having survived a shipwreck. The church also has a museum of ex-votos.
The festa
Each January the bahianas wash the steps of the church
The Festa do Bonfim begins on the second Thursday after Three Kings Day. A procession crosses 8 kilometres to the hill, where the bahianas wash the steps with aromatised water, dancing and singing in the Yoruba language.
Day 4, morning
Next is Itapagipe Peninsula.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, Salvador, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.