There is a post-Kublerlian historiography, as Senos (2012) rightly alludes to, which has been refined and debated over the last few years by various authors, such as Correia (1986, 2002), Gomes (2007) and Sousa (1990). George Kubler (1972) played a fundamental role in developing the concept of “plain architecture” and drawing attention to its design and morphology. For many years, several pieces of Portuguese architecture were ignored by European history, as they did not fit into the Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque styles. Thus Kubler (1972) when creating this category of “plain architecture” selected a set of churches through their architectural tendencies. Making them visible to the eyes of historiography (Senos, 2012), characterizing them in buildings of strict shapes, and rational and sober exteriors, with evident proportions, clarity, order, and simplicity. It is recognized as vernacular architecture (Kubler, 1972). However, Azorean religious architecture remains on the sidelines of this interpretation, despite the scientific studies made by Sousa (1990), Caldas (2011, 2012, 2018, 2018a), and Vieira (2019, 2022) on this topic. The present study includes the religious architecture of the Azores in the national historiography, presenting an analysis of the design of the facades and plans of a specific group of churches built in the 18th and 19th centuries, highlighting the existence of a typology of facade and plan on the island of São Miguel. This article reveals a temporal disarticulation between the design of the plan and the facade of these churches, corresponding to a type of plan inserted in one of the first phases of "plain architecture" (16th century) with a facade of Baroque ornamentation (17th-18th century).

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