Punucapa Church - part 1:

The other day I went to Punucapa, you can have a look at it on google map. According to Wikipedia "Punucapa is a hamlet of pre-Hispanic origin in Los Ríos Region, Chile. Its isolated location by the Cruces River and the Valdivian Coastal Range has make the village an ecotourism attraction."

It also is holds a sanctuary for the Virgen of the Candelaria. According to the official Punucapa website (excuse my rough translation):

"In the Year 1800 the priest, Parroco de Valdivia Reverendo Jose Brahmm, who belonged to the Jesuit Order, proposed to build a Sanctuary in the Valdivian community for the Virgen of the Candelaria on the outskirts of the town.

"Its construction was executed with the help of the whole neighbourhood and given to worship on 1882."

I really felt that this Church, represented the architecture and culture of Chile's dominant religion and history. Just like the Churches of Chiloe (excuse all of the wikipedia references, but I truly find this to be interesting) its the result of the cultural miscegenation between the European Jesuit culture and the native (especially indigenous) culture and beliefs.

This results in characteristic architectural traits such as it being built out of local native wood.

These photos are actually from a while back... although I can't remember an exact date, it was before New Year and they still had baby Jesus in a very rustic looking manger, along Joseph and Mary (close-up shots of the figures in a future post).

One of the things I most liked about the Church were the hand painted decorations on the ceiling. Even though it is rather simple compared to the architecture used in other great churches,  touches like these come to show the importance of this church as not only a place of worship, but a place where people came together.

And finally, here is the shrine for the Virgin of the Candelaria. Once a year she takes a trip around the area by boat. It is a big celebration and people come from afar to see this tradition take place. 

♱   ♱   ♱

Sorry for the extremely long post, I just didn't want this to extend to a 4 part series... I hope you enjoyed seeing this church, I do a lot of church photography, so expect to be seeing more of that.

In the further posts you will see more detailed shots of the figures and the details of the Virgen of the Candelaria.

Update:
part 2: The details of the rest of the figures of the church.
part 3: The details of the Virgen of the Candelaria.

Blessed be,

♱Rose