Overview
Located in Dieciocho neighborhood, this church is the Greater Temple of the Compañia de Jesus in Chile.
On December 15, 1867 was placed the firts stone of the Church, the school next to the church has the same name; and in November 17, 1872 was blessed by the Bishop of Kansas City. Juan Bautista Meige S. J., who was visiting Chile.
It is a building of Renaissance style, where the towers stand out of square base, crowned by domes. The access is framed by Corinthian columns that support a triangular pediment. The towers, despite their great weight, are light to the eye, in relation to the main body.
The Jesuit Congregation arrived at Chile in 1593, by order of King Felipe II of Spain and in 1767, while Carlos III reigned, was decided their expulsion from the country. The return of them, in the middle of century XIX, with the opening of the School of San Ignacio in 1856, marked a milestone within the religious and educational history of the city of Santiago.
The Church was declared Historical Monument in 2002, for the high artistic and spiritual value that keeps inside its walls, where you can see valuable paintings by Italian and Chilean artists, who show the Ignatian charism and the teaching of the faith by the example of notable saints and blessed of this religious order.
Architecture
The building of the church began in 1867, with a neoclassical-Renaissance style
On the main entrance is inscribed in Latin “HAEC EST DOMUS DEI ET PORTA COELI“ “This is the house of God and the gate of heaven.”
The two towers that crown it were projected by the French architect Eugenio JoannonCrozier, which were built between 1899 and 1900, with a height of 47 meters and 20 tons of weight each.
The east tower has a four-spherical clock made in Bilbao-Spain and installed in 1901. While the west tower has three manual bells, two of them were made with the founding of an old bell of the missing Church of the Company, burned down in 1863.
The first Chilean saint, Teresa of the Andes, visited the church in her youth, and San Alberto Hurtado S. J., as Ignatian and religious Jesuit, officiated Mass and confessed many faithful every day.
Santa Teresa de los Andes is remembered in this church with an altar dedicated to her memory and in the Church there is a small relic of San Alberto Hurtado , in addition to the confessional he used and the painting with his image, work of the artist Claudio Di Girólamo.
Padre Alonso de Ovalle, 1494, Santiago.