Escape the Sun Burn to Soak in Spanish Architecture at Santa Ines

Every summer beachgoers splash into Chile’s northern costal city, La Serena. But visitors hunting to soak in more than just the rays can feast their eyes on the architecture of the Spanish Conquistadors at the newly reconstructed Santa Ines Church. The church turned museum and event center rests hilltop on Calle Matta, just three blocks from the city center. The church weds two critical components of Chilean culture: their Spanish colonial past and the omnipresent Catholic Church.

The colonial-pink exterior offers a peak at what has shaped – at least, geographically speaking – the leggy country. In the 16^th century the Catholic Church first sprouted up, and now it’s roots are firmly planted in the culture and lives of Chileans. 

It’s been beaten and battered by earthquakes and pillaged by pirates, but about seven years ago the government snatched up the then tattered building to patch it up. Construction workers erected walls after hand-stirring the same wood-based mortar the Spaniards used for the original Classic Baroque building. After rolling up their sleeves for five slow mode years of reconstruction, the municipality wrapped up the fixes to San Frances and opened it to the public.  

Scouring the area for construction materials to remake the church in an authentic way captured local attention according to Maria Ferando, who gives tours of the church. She said, “The church is a point of pride for the city.“

Inside the church, play-house sized doors in the corner open up a catacomb-like crawl space wandering beneath floor boards. The space does double-duty as a graveyard. Above, two centuries-old paint-chipped statues of the Virgin Mary pray facing each other. They sit at heavy alter that reaches up toward a lofty ceiling paced with a crescendo of wooden beams. 

Off to the right of the aisle, a maple syrup tinted statue of Jesus hanging from a crucifix rests in the middle of the wall. He stares downward with features showing off his indigenous Chilean roots.

Despite it relics and appearance, the church left it’s role as a place of worship behind. Now, it shines a light on Chile’s religious patrimony. Although it regularly hosts community events, the church hasn’t hosted religious services for 62 years.

Still, the knot tying together Catholic culture and daily life in Chile remains tight.  Mosey down one of the tan brick roads lined with the Spanish-flavored shops and businesses of La Serena and you’re sure to run into one of the city’s 12 historic Catholic churches before long. La Serena boasts the largest concentration of Catholic Churches in Chile. 

Like the rest of the dozen, San Frances upholds the architectural tradition that first arrived with the Spanish colonization, but the restoration bringing the church back to its glory days makes it stand out. It offers outsiders a glimpse into the spiritual life to majority of the country.