DISCOVERING ARGENTINA RAE ARGENTINA TO THE WORLD

Buenos Aires' Historic Churches

Among the viceroyal cities of the American colony of Spain, Buenos Aires was just a peripheral village that was founded to stop the advance of the Portuguese. This status turned it, in those first centuries of life, into a place where smuggling was the way of life that consolidated fortunes and sheltered adventurers who arrived escaping from other important cities such as Asunción del Paraguay, Cusco or Lima (in Peru).

However, in tune with the times, the Spanish imprint was marked in the number of churches and convents that rose from which some remain to this day, with their histories and legends. Buenos Aires has at least nine churches built since colonial times, concentrated in the historic neighborhoods of the City.

One of these churches is that of the Purísima Concepción, 250 years old. At the current address of 910 Independencia Avenue, Juan Guillermo González y Gutiérrez de Aragón erects a chapel called, due to its location, Del Alto de San Pedro. Over the years, the chapel was purchased by the landowner Mathias Flores who consecrated it to the Purest Conception of Mary, and with an altar in honor of Blessed Pedro Telmo.

At present, the temple occupies 17 meters wide by 63 meters long and the side naves have 4 chapels each with its dome and altar. The dome of the central nave is 25 meters high. On each of the columns that separate the naves there are frescoes painted with religious motifs. In 1978, with the extension of Independencia Avenue was eliminated the atrium.

Another outstanding church in Buenos Aires is San Ignacio de Loyola, which began to be built in 1712 according to plans designed by the Jesuit Juan Krauss. The south tower and the front wall, together with a section of underground galleries that communicated the Church with the disappeared fortress of the city, on the banks of the Río de la Plata, still date from this period.

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