Church of São Sebastião (Ponta Delgada)

Why go

Ponta Delgada's municipal tourism site says the people of Ponta Delgada vowed, during the plague of 1523 to 1531, to build a new church to Saint Sebastian and make him the city's patron, that building began in 1531 with marble for the portals and pillars brought from the mainland, that the church opened for worship in 1550, and that the present tower was built from 1623. The same page says the façade was remodelled from 1748 while the old portals were kept, and records the church as a Property of Public Interest under a 1953 decree. The municipality's monuments page describes it as combining Gothic, Manueline and Baroque elements. The municipal page names it the parish church of São Sebastião; this record is the church, not the parish of São Sebastião and not the other São Sebastião churches in Portugal.