The art historian Germain Bazin classifies the church as Portuguese in design, rather than part of the Bahian tradition of religious structures of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The building was designed by Manuel Cardoso Saldanha; the master bricklayer and architect Eugénio da Mota prepared the stonework in Portugal and accompanied it to Salvador.

Robert C. Smith described the structure as the "first and most complete expression in Brazil of the new Baroque style that succeeded Mannerism in Portugal in the early years of John V's reign."

Landfill and extensive port expansion of the cidade baixa, or lower city of Salvador, was carried out in the 19th century.

Tomé de Sousa (1503-1579), the first governor-general of the Portuguese colony of Brazil, established a primitive settlement and chapel in 1549 on the site of the current church in the initial period of construction of Salvador.

Father Manuel da Nóbrega (1517-1570) and six Jesuit clergymen personally built a small mud-walled chapel at the base of the slope between the current upper and lower city.

The chapel was dedicated to Our Lady of the Conception and housed an image of the saint brought by Tomé de Sousa from Portugal.

The site sits close to the oceanfront and was a place of worship for sailors and tradesmen arriving in Brazil; they christened the church the Conception of the Beach (Conceição da Praia), a name that remained during subsequent reconstructions.

Marcos Teixeira de Mendonça (1578-1624), a bishop and resistance leader against the Dutch attacks against Brazil, expanded the structure in 1623.

The master bricklayer and architect Eugénio da Mota prepared the lioz stonework in Portugal and accompanied it to Salvador.

The art historian Germain Bazin classifies it as the only Portuguese church in Bahia, and outside of the progression of design of other religious structures in the region.

The new structure, still unfinished, was dedicated on December 8 of the same year by the Archbishop of Bahia, Frei Manuel de Santa Inês Ferreira (1704-1771).

[8][13][6][7] The church of the Immaculate Conception received the title of minor basilica by the Apostolic Letter "Coruscantis sideris" of the 7 of October 1946, by decision of the Holy See.

The master carver João Moreira do Espírito Santo completed the carving of the high altar in cedar between 1765 and 1773.

The Italianate Solomonic columns, which are white with gilded floral garlands and acanthus details, resemble those of the baldachin of St. Peter's Basilica.