This church was constructed in 1664 by André Vidal de Negreiros after he survived a shipwreck. It is a very beautiful example of Portuguese tropical architecture which keeps the church cool. This includes thick walls, small windows and, according to my sources, gardens inside the building through which the heat is allowed to escape. However, the gardens are not to be found in this church.

The church was used as a school of African languages by missionaries a few years from 1886. In 1909 the roof was destroyed by heavy rainfalls and was not restored until 1935. The church was also looked over in 2002, this included a repaint.

For some reason, there are many stories about this church, for example a story about the beheading of a king (whether this is true or not, I am not sure):

In 1664, almost 100 years after the Portuguese had founded the city of Luanda with 400 soldiers and a hundred families, African kingdoms were still present in Angola. The Portuguese were at this time still trading with some of them, but they were at war with others. In 1664, right before the construction of this church had finished, the Portuguese had caught an African king during a battle and they now had a prisoner of war. This king was, only a few days after his capture, sentenced to death by beheading. The beheading was to take place outside the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré and his body was to be buried where the Cemitério de Alta das Cruzes lies today. His head, however, was to be separated from his body to prevent reincarnation and spiritual power, in which the Africans believed. For some reason, his head was then placed inside the walls of this church and the wall was covered with a large azulejo (azulejo is a Portuguese form of art where one paints a picture solely in shades of blue on tiles and puts them on a wall). The point on the wall that covers the head of the African king is marked on the azulejo with the drawing of a head.