Cathedral ~ Puerto Montt

Winter 2016

I present to you the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral, of Puerto Montt. My partner and I went to visit my aunt this winter, and while we were there he obviously had to accompany me while I scouted for local churches and cathedrals. It is a Roman Catholic church that was first built in 1892. It was later elevated to a cathedral in 1932.

This beautiful building is made of "Alerce" wood, otherwise known as the Patagonian cypress, like most churches in that region. Its cupola is made of copper, and whenever the sun hits it it gives out a marvelous glow. 

We weren't able to enter the church, since it was closed on the day we were visiting. So that will have to be left for another visit.

Take care,

~Rose

San Francisco Church - Part 2

                 

This is the second and final part of the series of photos that I took of the San Francisco Church when I went to visit the capital city over winter holidays. You can read the first part here, there I gave a bit of background information about the church and about how much it means to me. In an attempt to not be a bore I decided that in this post I would just include the remaining photographs.

      

         

                  

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As I said in the first part of this series, I have no words to express how much I love this church, I only have these photographs to share with you all. I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I have.

Blessed be,

~Rose

San Francisco Church - Part 1

Over the holidays I went to Santiago, the capitol of the country I'm living in. There I did loads of stuff (another post on that later) and one of my many adventures was to go visit one of my favourite churches, the San Francisco Church. It's construction dates back to the 1500 and is currently one of the oldest architectural monuments in the country.  Currently the convent has been turned into a museum (which I sadly wasn't able to visit due to the lack of time and money). The main structure was made of adobe, but since the many earthquakes it has been reconstructed with white stone, extracted from the nearby hills by the indigenous people. 

                      

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I don't even know how to begin talking about everything that I love about this church. The paintings on the ceiling, the architecture, the floor, the shrines, the details; I could go on and on. But what I most like about this church is the atmosphere. The church is actually really really dark, and you can see that from the photos even though there were taken near noon on a perfectly sunny day. Once you enter the church, it's like you enter into this new world. The temperature drops, the noise of the city is suddenly muted... even the air is different. You can suddenly hear every footstep, every breath. Everyone is silent and lost inside this haven. It's as if the outside world comes to a stop. Even though I myself am not catholic, when I lived in the city a few years back I would often come here to just sit and think. Reflect on my life, what I was doing, what was to come. I would also observe the other people, many would come and sit down just like me, lost in thought. Some would cry, some whispered prayers under their breath, others were in complete silence.
I don't think I could possibly put to words what this place means to me, I only have these photos to share with you.

Blessed be,
~Rose

(Note: Part 2)

Punucapa Church - part 3:

 The Virgin

This is the Virgen of the Candelaria, of the Punucapa Church. You can learn more about the place here in the first post of the series. 

The figure of the Virgin was donated by Carmen Gómez Campillo and arrived in Punucapa in 1882. That makes it 133 year old! She usually wears a red dress with a blue cape, made by Emiliana Carvallo de Lorca, but when I was there she was wearing this beautiful white gown. 

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This is the third and final part of my Punucapa Church series, I love exploring Churches, so expect to be seeing more in the nearer future.

part 1: The first part of the series where you see the church itself and the history of the place. 

part 2: The details of the rest of the figures of the church.

Blessed be, 

~Rose

Punucapa Church - part 2:

The Figures

This is the second post of my Punucapa Church series. You can see the first part here, there I talked about the history of the place and showed general photos of the church. In this post you will be able to admire the details of the religious statues. These are made out of wood, they are hand-carved, hand-painted and date back to over 100 years. As you can see they are mostly worn and could do with some touch ups, but to be honest, I like them just how they are. I feel it goes along well with the Church's history and aesthetic.

And, as I said in the other post, I went around christmas time, so I was able to see the manger! Here are some close-ups of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.

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 Hope you enjoyed this and the third part will be up soon!

Update: part 3

Blessed be,
~Rose ♱

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. 

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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