Originally, the
mother church of Petrópolis was a modest building located in front of the
Imperial Palace but the construction of a new one on the same site was proposed in the urbanization plan of Petrópolis, dated 1843, produced by Major Júlio Frederico Koeler. In the 1870s the construction of the new church was reconsidered, thanks to the interest of Emperor Pedro II and his daughter,
Isabel, Princess Imperial. In 1871 the construction of a new Matrix was officially sanctioned but it would be slow to materialize. In 1876 the Italian architect Federico Roncetti presented a plan in
Renaissance Revival architecture that was refused. The current building of the cathedral only began in 1884. The project was commissioned from the
Bahian engineer and architect Francisco Caminhoá, who designed a Neo-Gothic style building, very fashionable at the time, especially inspired by the old cathedrals of northern
France. The work was carried out by the contractor Manuel Pereira Jerônimo, son of one of the first families to settle in the city, coming from Pico Island in the
Azores. The construction of the cathedral did not stop after the
Proclamation of the Republic and continued until 1901 when the works enter a period of paralysis. Under the command of engineer Heitor da Silva Costa the work entered into a second phase of intense activity in 1918. Finally, on 29 November 1925, the new Cathedral of Petrópolis was inaugurated after 37 years of work. The building, however, was not complete, lacking the main façade and the tower, and much of the interior decoration. The works of the façade only began in 1929 and reached rosette level in the 1930s. The tower was built between 1960 and 1969. In 1920 the decree banning the
Brazilian Imperial Family was annulled and in 1921 the remains of Emperor Pedro II and his wife,
Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, were brought from the
Royal Pantheon of the House of Braganza in
Lisbon to
Rio de Janeiro, where they were housed in the
old Metropolitan Cathedral. In 1925 the remains were transferred to the sacristy of the Cathedral of Petrópolis. Finally, on 5 December 1939, President
Getúlio Vargas and other authorities inaugurated the Imperial Mausoleum, where the Emperor and Empress were finally transferred. In 1971 Princess Isabel and her husband,
Gaston, Count of Eu were buried in the mausoleum. ==Description==