Religious-cultural heritage on the Ibero-American space: a comparative analysis of the potential of churches of carmo in Olinda (Brazil) and Faro (portugal) on the touristic context
The city of Olinda, located in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, which received the title of World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982, plays an important role in the tourist-cultural scenario of the country. At the same time, the city of Faro, in the Algarve, has emerged as one of the important tourist destinations in Portugal. Joining the two cities, the Nossa Senhora do Carmo Churchs present architectural and cultural standards and expressions that emerge as tourist and heritage attractions for both cities. The religious orders played an important role in the expansion of Portuguese art from the sixteenth century. The first Carmelite convent built in Brazil was in Olinda, in the year 1583, highlighting its historic perspective. The Nossa Senhora do Carmo church in Faro was built in 1719, due to a need to consolidate the religious movement in Faro society. In this context, this paper aims to identify convergences and divergences between the two monuments, as well as their potentialities and uses in the tourism context. To achieve the goal, the study was conducted by a qualitative approach, based on photographic analysis, observation in loco and semi-structured interviews with the actors responsible for the buildings. They were put in parallel construction standards, the interior ornamentation, the view as a tourist-cultural-religious attraction and religious, architectural and artistic influences in a Latin American context of the Carmelite order.