at a glance

mary, the blessed virgin and the mother of god was now the focus of intense veneration - that devotion to her spilled over into the flurry of church and cathedral building, which in turn, spread with colonization.

what this translated into was that many, if not nearly every church was named for and dedicated to mary - therefore, the church was usually named as our lady of or, in portuguese, nossa senhora da plus, the name of a location or attribute specific to the saint's life, for example.

the igreja de nossa senhora da lapa dos mercadores(church of our lady of the snail merchants), on rua do ouvidor 35 was consecrated in 1753 - and named in tribute to lapa of the merchants, a nearby area.

prior to that, an oratory, usually a private building for prayer was built by the local merchants to serve their spiritual needs.