DESCRIPTION

After 300 years, the Jesuit Missions in Bolivia are the last original missions in the Southern Cone. San José, Santa Ana, San Rafael, San Miguel, San Ignacio, Concepción y San Javier, are seven of the ten Chiquitanas populations that until today have preserved their missionary construcions. In 1991, the Bolivian Jesuit Missions where declared a “World Cultural Heritage Site” by UNESCO.
In their days the Chiquitos Missions were the principal seat of Jesuit activity in the New World. Their main funtion was to convert the nomadic tribes to what was known as “Converted Indian Settlements” intending to introduce these populations to Western religion, civics and art. The missions were all built between 1691 and 1760. The architecture of these baroque temples featured massive handcarved wooden altars often covered in gold, paintings, wooden pulpits, and impressive wooden columns. These churches, restored in the 1960s under the guidance of architect Hans Roth and later Juan Carlos Ruiz have recovered much of their original splendor.