This artcle aims to analise the process of urban development of the districts of Santo Antônio and São José after the Dutch surrender in 1654 and how the religious buildings affected their urban morphology until 1800, refusing the current thesis which propose the possible permanence of the Dutch urban design in both of districts and demonstrating that religious buildings were true structural elements of the districts’ urban design.
Kewyords: urbanization, urban morphology, Portuguese urbanism, colonial urbanism.