The São Francisco da Prainha Church was built in 1696 by Father Francisco da Motta and donated in his will to the Third Order of St. Francis of Penance in 1704. The locale was closed from 2004-2014 by Civil Defense due to conservation problems. It was preserved by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) as an artistic monument and is open to visitors Mondays to Fridays from 9:00am to 11:30am and from 1:00pm to 4:00pm.
The church was rebuilt in 1740 after being destroyed by a fire caused by the French invasion, in 1710, led by Jean-François Duclerc. Duclerc’s troops were trapped between the chapel and a sugar mill owned by the Third Order of St. Francis of Penance. “To cause the surrender of the enemy, then governor, Castro Morais, ordered his troops to set fire to the two buildings. For some years, everything was in ruins, until the Order rebuilt the sugar mill, at the time the most important in the city.”