Joaquim Pinto de Oliveira

Known as Tebas, Joaquim Pinto de Oliveira was an important eighteenth-century architect. His nickname may be a reference to the ingenuity of the Greek Oedipus, King of Thebes (Tebas, in Portuguese), but also to a Kimbundu word used to define someone with great skill. He was enslaved to the Portuguese Bento de Oliveira Lima, a master builder in Santos. He learned the craft and came to São Paulo with his master. In the capital, Tebas was responsible for decorating the façades of the churches of the São Bento Monastery (1766), the Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (1777) and the Third Order of the Seraphic Saint Francis (1783). He built the city’s first public water supply system in the fountain in front of the Misericórdia church. He also built the tower of the city’s Cathedral (1750) and renovated it 28 years later, at 57 years old and already a freedman.