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In 1682 the small chapel was constructed, to honor to Our Lady of Rosary. According the Historian Henry Bates, in 1829 again the Small chapel was demolished and a new construction started and the church was considered finished in 1848. They work so hard, that the Governor Manoel Bernardes de Melo decided to cooperate and donated 50,000 Réis (that currency of that time would be aproximately 2,500 US Dollars) every month.

The Italian Architect Antonio Landi (1713-1791) designed the church and also contributed with money, but there is not record of the amount he donated.

According to some Historians, because the Church depended on money donated by humble and poor people, it took almost 2 centuries to finish construction. 

When Historian Bates was in Belem, he describes that it was common to see a line of black people down the streets carrying Stones, bricks, wood and clay. Many of them were slaves. He was surprised that after a whole day of hard work, those men still had power to contributed to the construction of the church.

Based on the book "Igrejas de Belém" by Historian Ernesto Cruz