IGREJA DE SÃO JOSÉ DO DESTERRO

Built in 1618, the Igreja de São José do Desterro, the only Byzantine-inspired church in the country, is also one of the oldest. In the ^17th century, all that stood here was a modest straw-roofed hermitage, which the Dutch sacked when they raided the town on November 25, 1642. Much later, in 1865, the town planned to build a fish market. Given the building's historical importance, it was spared.