Church of Nossa Senhora do Terço [Our Lady of the Rosary] (Recife, PE)

The small church of Our Lady of the Rosary, located in the traditional Pátio do Terço [Rosary Courtyard] in the district of São José, is between the streets Rua Direita and Rua das Águas Verdes. It looks like an “ironing board”, some say: tall and slender, like a steeple, and with one tower only.

During the Dutch presence in Recife, Count John Maurice of Nassau wished to give a modern touch to the city. To this end, in the place where Pátio do Terço is located, he ordered the opening of canals, the drainage of flooded lands and the lifting of trenches with moats and pillars, among other projects.

When the Dutch were expelled, the place became known as “the city road, for those coming from the continent side”. Until the first decades of the 18th century, at the beginning of Rua dos Copiares street (now called Rua Cristóvão Colombo), there was a niche with an image of Our Lady where travellers knelt and prayed a rosary to the Blessed Virgin. As the locality had become an important point, the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary was erected there, in the former Copiares street.

The Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary, on the other hand, was only installed in the chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary on 19 September 1726. By the mid-19th century, this chapel was almost demolished when, through the initiative of the Brotherhood, the new temple was built.
Before this, however, a historical event took place at the church’s doors: the condemnation to hanging of the revolutionary friar of the Confederation of Ecuador, Friar Joaquim do Amor Divino Caneca.

However, since no one was willing to hang Fr Caneca at the church of Our Lady of the Rosary, the soldiers took him on foot across the length of Pátio do Terço to Largo das Cinco Pontas, where the friar was killed by shotgun next to the São José church, despite the people’s protests.
The main chapel and one of the altars of the church of Our Lady of the Rosary were carved by the Pernambuco master José de Souza. In the temple there is a tiled spire (the higher part of a tower) with ornamental jars and an elegant balustrade, a bell, a small cross with angels, a window with a balcony railing, a clock and a date – 1726.

Some images are also in the church: Our Lady of the Rosary, Lord Good Jesus, St Anthony, St John, St Blaise, St Manuel, Our Lady of Sorrows, St Sebastian, St Rita of Cascia and Our Lady of Solitude.


Recife, 12 August 2003.
(Updated on 22 November 2007).
Translated by Peter Leamy, November 2016.

sources consulted

FRANCA, Rubem. Monumentos do Recife. Recife: Secretaria de Educação e Cultura, 1977.

GUERRA, Flávio. Velhas igrejas e subúrbios históricos. Recife: Fundação Guararapes, 1970.

how to quote this text

Source: VAINSENCHER, Semira Adler. Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Terço, Recife, PE. Pesquisa Escolar Online, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife. Disponível em: <https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/en/>. Acesso em: dia  mês ano. Ex: 6 ago. 2009.