Igreja da Boa Morte da Cidade de Goiás: a perda do lugar sagrado e a construção do lugar de memórias

Abstract

This research aims to present the Church of Boa Morte as a place of important historical, cultural and religious value that dates back to the colonial period in the city of Goiás. This temple, built in 1779, was dedicated to the practices of the Catholic Marian cult devoted by the brotherhood. 18th century of the brown people of Boa Morte, whose patron saint was Our Lady of Boa Morte. Over time, this sacred precinct acquired great meaning for this group, as well as for the local Catholic community; since it was used not only to carry out religious practices, but it was also the space for rites and funeral ceremonies with on-site burials. However, at the end of the 19th century, the implementation of hygienist and sanitary standards by political authorities, together with the secularization of religious practices directed by the Catholic Church, affected the ways of living and experiencing the sacred in the Church of Boa Morte. At the same time, in 1950, the federal body for Cultural Heritage, at the time, SPHAN, recognized the cultural assets identified in the historic city, seen in its relics of the past, its houses, stone streets and squares, monuments and ancient churches, including Boa Morte, listed as Historical, Architectural and Cultural Heritage. In 1969, a museum was established, which now houses a valuable collection of sacred images by the sculptor Veiga Valle from Goiás. The work seeks to understand, through this dynamic, the cultural, symbolic and aesthetic appropriations operated under the Boa Morte church, by the Diocese of Goiás, OVAT and the local community. As a methodological resource, bibliographical and documentary research was initially carried out regarding the church, and the experience of religious cultural practices lived in its space. The process of listing and museumization was also explored, based on a survey of data using letters, decrees, opinions, correspondence, also observing the minutes book, collection catalogs, among other documents. The research resulted in the identification of a sacred place (the church), which was transformed into a place of memories (the museum), undergoing renovations and technical adjustments, changes that, as a rule, reverberate in the maneuvers carried out by the patrimonialization processes of assets. cultural. The Boa Morte church, now a museum, is seen as an Ecclesiastical Heritage representative of the local history and religious cultural identity of the city of Goiás.