Its construction started in 1909 at the place where the image of the Virgin of Nazareth was found by Plácido José de Souza (whose origins are controversial, with different versions) in the state of Pará, on the banks of the Murututu Igarapé.

[2][3] The current structure of the basilica was designed in 1909 by Gino Coppedè, and was commissioned by Barnabite priests of the Genoa house.

It followed the design of Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, an eclectic, Neoclassical, 19th-century structure by Pasquale Belli and Luigi Poletti.

The municipal government of Belém argued that all churches in the Lusophone world should have two steeples.

Pope Pius XII granted a decree of pontifical coronation to its venerated Marian image on 9 July 1953 and was crowned on 15 August the same year.