On Friday our group visited some sites located in the historical section of Recife. One place that stood out was the catholic church Nossa Senhora do Carmo. Like many of the other older churches, this one had several heavily decorated altars where the wealthy families in Recife would sit by during mass.

While the picture is not the greatest, the details of the altar are still impressive, with the woodwork covered in gold leaf. One of the reasons that so many churches were decorated so heavily in gold was in order to keep the Portuguese from taking all of the gold mined in Brazil off to Portugal. By using it in the churches, Brazilians were able to keep a little of their own natural wealth.