Lúcio Costa approaches, in this article, the singularities of the Jesuitical buildings in the Brazilian context, stating that such works constituted our true "antiquity". The author argues that, if in Europe the religious order was associated with the exuberance of Baroque, here its interventions were marked by a deep sobriety, nonetheless revealing a "popular flavor" that has been, since the beginning, transfiguring the classical canons, and, thus, becoming legitimate experiences of reinvention. The author pays attention to the fact that, in Brazil, the architectural features in the Jesuitical works surpasses the religious sphere, appearing in other urban buildings.
brazilian architecture; Society of Jesus; Baro- que in Brazil; brazilian art of the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries; churches; urban design
