⛪ Heavenly ceilings, earthly cracks

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the Brazil Society newsletter! This week, we examine Brazil’s ongoing challenges in protecting its heritage sites — laid bare by the recent collapse of a church roof in Salvador, Bahia.

If you have any questions about this newsletter, or topics you’d like to see covered in future issues, you can reach me at [email protected] 

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Brazil’s struggle to save its heritage

The collapse of the decorative ceiling at one of Brazil’s most historic churches in Salvador, which tragically killed a tourist, has reignited concerns about the country's efforts to conserve its cultural heritage sites — and the responsibilities of both the government and private entities in their restoration and maintenance. In response to the incident, authorities have shuttered six other churches in the northeastern city.

According to Unesco, Brazil is home to 15 cultural heritage sites, out of a total of 24 world heritage properties — all of inestimable value not only to Brazilians but to humanity as a whole. Among these is Salvador’s historic center, Pelourinho, designated in 1985, where the collapsed church is located.

Many of these heritage buildings belong to religious brotherhoods, which played a central role in Brazil’s colonization and maintain vast architectural and urban legacies. While historic cities like Ouro Preto and Paraty remain largely well-preserved, federal prosecutors are urging top Catholic Church officials to assume greater responsibility for heritage conservation in cooperation with government agencies.

The problem extends beyond religious sites. In 2018, a fire at the poorly maintained National Museum, housed in a colonial palace affiliated with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, shocked the country. The inferno destroyed nearly all of the institution's 20 million cultural and scientific artifacts, including the oldest human fossil ever found in Brazil, remnants of which were later recovered from the ashes.

Now, a new cultural tragedy has unfolded at the Baroque Church of São Francisco de Assis, known as the "Church of Gold" for its opulent, gold-leaf interior. 

Listed by Brazil’s National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute (Iphan) and recognized internationally as one of the Seven Wonders of Portuguese Origin, the church had undergone restoration work, but a broader structural project was still in the planning stages. 

Two days before the ceiling collapse, church administrators had notified Iphan of concerns about the structure, yet the agency says the emergency was not adequately communicated. The church remained open, charging an entry fee of BRL 10 (USD 1.74).

A crisis in preservation

The Civil Defense of Salvador has identified more than 400 properties in the city at high or very high risk of collapse or fire, with another 2,500 facing moderate risk.

When properties are privately owned, as are Catholic Church buildings, responsibility for maintenance lies with the owners. If they lack the resources to fund repairs, they may seek support from public agencies such as Iphan, or state heritage offices. However, experts warn that Brazil lacks a coherent, well-structured preservation policy with clear guidelines delineating public and private responsibilities.

“Church administrators do not have the expertise or technical capacity to assess whether a roof is at risk of collapse or other structural failure,” said Father Jailson Jesus dos Santos, who holds a PhD in Church History, in an interview with Correio Braziliense, a local newspaper from Brasília. “Regular inspections must be carried out by the responsible public authorities.”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has also criticized the practice of listing properties as heritage sites without assigning clear responsibilities or allocating sufficient budgets for their upkeep. Unlike in many developed countries, Brazilian economic elites are much less engaged in philanthropy for historical preservation, as evidenced by the challenges in raising funds for the National Museum's reconstruction after the 2018 fire.

Moreover, government agencies lack sufficient specialized personnel, long-term planning and standardized criteria for prioritizing restoration projects. In Bahia, for instance, Iphan employs only 10 professionals with degrees in architecture or engineering, yet they are tasked with inspecting 9,000 historical properties.

The Culture Ministry is attempting to recover after years of neglect under the Jair Bolsonaro administration. It has increased Iphan’s budget, but funding remains insufficient given the sheer scale of Brazil’s cultural heritage across a country of continental dimensions.

In an environment where resources are scarce and bureaucracy often slows action, legal rulings can sometimes determine which restoration projects move forward. 

Meanwhile, new threats loom: in addition to long-standing risks such as vandalism, urban encroachment and government neglect, increasingly frequent extreme weather events now endanger Brazil’s centuries-old landmarks. Without a more robust and proactive preservation strategy, the country risks further irreparable losses to its invaluable heritage.

Quick catch-up

⚕️ The Superior Court of Justice received almost 400 cases in 2024 alone requesting criminal protection for the domestic cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes, a 2,000% increase from 2020, when there were only 17 such cases.

📚 A German school textbook has sparked outrage in Brazil. It depicts the average Brazilian child as someone who forages for food in the trash and does not attend school (although the country’s school enrollment rate for children aged 6-14 is 99.4%). The book’s publisher has since apologized, promising to revise the material.

🚴 In order to work as delivery drivers, teenagers are managing to circumvent prohibitions on their registration by platforms such as iFood and Rappi. Online tutorials and forums teach people how to cheat verification systems. Tactics include renting accounts from third parties.

🎥 Film director Cacá Diegues, one of the key names of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement in the 1960s, died on Friday. He was 84. He directed “Bye Bye Brazil,” a road movie about a country in transition, which competed for the Palme d’Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.