- Paço Imperial, Rio
The Portuguese colonial style is very consistent – you find its characteristics in houses and churches constructed between the 16th and the 18th centuries wherever Lisbon established its governors. Naturally, early colonial houses are very different from more recent ones. It is almost impossible to compare a baroque church of Ouro Preto (Minas Gerais) and a house in Paraty (Rio). In some cities you can see buildings built with hand painted tiles, soap stone and gold. Others adopted only modest materials. Yet, they have a few common characteristics, such as the doors and guillotine windows – generally framed and rounder on the top -, the contrast of white and bright colors, the iron balconies.These same features can be seen in other former Portuguese colonies, such as Goa, in India, and Macau, in China. By the way, Goa reminds me a lot of Salvador – beautiful coast of white sand, lined with coconuts; a few dishes vaguely similar; some wonderful baroque churches; and, of course, poverty. Not your average Indian poverty, but still.
Santo Antonio do Carmo church, Olinda, Pernambuco 
- Paraty, in Rio state
- Carmo church, Mariana, Minas Gerais
- Macau, China
- Panjim, Goa, India
Hello Regina,
The pictures of Brazil appear normally, but the ones of India and China don’t appear in Explorer nor in Firefox.
I’d love to see ’em though.
Abraco virtual, Carlos ‘Nariz’.
I am not sure what went wrong – I am using Explorer and I can see them fine. I will try to work on this tonight. And I will send these pictures to your email, Ok?
Hi regina,
Beautiful images, I can see the influence from Portugal. I just wanted to let you know that I can see all the images correctly but the text is wrapping behind the right menu column.
Yeah, I am sorry for that. All this blogging thing is new to me and I am having some technological troubles. I will try to solve that. Thanks for the comment and have a fantastic 2010.
Actually the churches and forts/fortalezas have more in common stretching from India, West Africa and Brazil.
I live in Florianopolis, Brazil.
Of all the Portuguese forts still existing in India, Baçaim (today Vasai), is one of the most imposing.
Today Baçaim is a tangle of ruins, the city has, still well preserved, his imposing boundary walls, with his two access doors (“Porta do Mar” and “Porta da Terra”) and his 10 bastions. Scattered inside the walls there are the ruins of numerous town-houses and churches, among other things: the church and the convent of the Dominicans, the Franciscan church of Santo Antonio (with numerous Portuguese tombstones, the remains of the cloister and the ruins of the bell-tower), the church of Nossa Senhora da Vida, the church and convents of the Augustinian, the “Camara” palace, the Misericordia, the church Matriz of S. José, the ruins of the Jesuits church and convent. Well preserved are also the remains of the old citadel of São Sebastião.
Then there is the Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem in Bandel, West Bengal, India, founded in 1599. You will think you are in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil!