Like many colonial towns in South America, Olinda has lots of churches, monasteries, convents, shrines, etc. Many are no longer centres for worship, but are more like museums now. They all seem to be brilliantly built for the climate – cool shaded interiors with open passages for the wind to come through.
The outside of the convent
Me on the convent balcony
Sao Francisco in the convent garden
An altar in the convent
The ceiling of the Catherdral
The glazed tiles on the walls of the convent. I think this is a way of teaching the stories of the saints and martyrs to folks with limited literacy.. There were perhaps 20 of these murals around the atrium; the bottom of each shows an instrument of torture or punishment , and the main frame shows a martyr dying a grizzly death while they have a vision of Christ, or saints performing miracles.
