The church of Martinópolis: study on the religious architecture of São Paulo

• Grant number: 14/10644-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2014
• End date: May 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Paula Ferreira Vermeersch
• Grantee: Caroline de Melo Almeida
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Child of the deep popular religiosity of the first decenniums of the twentieth century the Martinópolis mother church in the western side of the São Paulo state offers a wide field of study to architects and historians. Born alongside the tracks of the Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana, the city of Martinópolis arose after the establishment of the José Theodoro railroad station, name given in honor of the eighteenth century rusher José Theodoro de Souza. Due to the assured virgin lands and goods transportation by the railroad, the place was divided into lots by the Portuguese colonizer João Gomes Martins in the beginning of the 1920s decade. The present mother church of the city was built in 1936 and has its roots in the popular religiosity that required the construction of a temple in which it was possible to practice the Catholic meetings in a public way. Due to the preservation of its original features, despite the continuing renovations, the research seeks to approach the religious building as source and object, angling for outlining its historical arquitectural features in a dialogue between history and architecture. This research justifies itself duo to the opportunity that this building presents to the knowledge of the São Paulo state countryside religious arquitecture, where most of the churches toward Catholic meetings arose in the cities formation process, between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The parallelism between the formation of the cities and the churches construction has left still evident traces in these locations, given the fact that even nowadays they hold considerable importance, be it in the trace of the city as in the routine and memory of the population. (AU)