The church is dedicated to Our Lady of the Conception and is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of São Salvador da Bahia.

Its original baroque construction of the 18th century remains largely unaltered, with a complex high altar, azulejos in the chancel, and a well-preserved nave ceiling painting.

Manuel Antunes Lima and João de Miranda Ribeiro, wealthy merchants in Salvador, sought authorization from John V of Portugal to build a convent to cloister their daughters.

João de Miranda Ribeiro, originally from Porto, was admitted to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Salvador in 1717, a charitable fraternity, as a "minor" member due to his status as a carpenter.

He became greatly wealthy over the next three decades; his son, Agostoinho de Miranda Ribeiro, was admitted to the Misericórdia fraternity as a "major" member due to their elevated family status.

John V stipulated that the Lima and Ribeiro cover the entire cost of the construction of the convent, and limit its community to twenty individuals.

Construction on the convent of Lapa began in 1734 on landed ceded to Ribeiro by Captain João Pinto Brandão de Magalhães.

João Miranda Ribeiro asked John V to build a church adjacent to the convent; a small military fortification, however, was located on the site.

Sergeant-Major Manuel Cardoso de Saldanha declared the small military fortification ruined and useless in a letter dated June 10, 1752, which allowed construction to begin on the site.

His work began on June 8, 1755, but not completed until 1763; the Lapa convent, like other religious structures in Salvador, often lacked donations or wealthy patrons.

[10] The Church and Convent of Our Lady of the Conception of Lapa is the site of a key event in the struggle for the independence of Brazil from the Portuguese in the early 19th century.

The Portuguese stabbed Joana Angélica a bayonet, and she promptly died and became the first heroine of the independence struggle of Brazil.

Maria José da Conceição Barata, abbess of the convent, received members of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd on July 16, 1901.

With the death of the final Conceptionist sister in 1912, ownership of the Lapa Convent passed to the Good Shepherd religious community.

The stone portal of the church, brought by José Moreira Leal from Lisbon in 1754, is in an ornate baroque style with a large pediment, volutes, and a niche.

The panel at left has an image of the Virgin Mary in a procession to the new church, with a legend reading Bem intenta a devoção dar-lhe lugar mais decente porem na Lapa somente quer ter a veneração.

It has "powerful" baroque-style Solomonic columns, four on each side of its central part, surmounted by a canopy in the form of a crown, supported by figures of caryatids.

The ceiling of the chancel is painted and image of the Virgin Mary superimposed Holy Trinity, as well as religious figures receiving the habit of the Conceptionist order.