St. Francis Basilica (Buenos Aires)
The Francis Basilica ( Spanish Basílica de San Francisco ) is a church in the historic Barrio Monserrat of Buenos Aires , capital of Argentina . The monastery church of the Franciscan is their founder, St.. Consecrated to Francis of Assisi , it bears the title of a minor basilica . and is a listed building. The baroque building dates from the 18th century, but has been significantly redesigned.
history
When Buenos Aires was founded in 1580, the conquistador Juan de Garay laid down a block in the city plan for the Franciscan monastery; the order was the first to be sent to the country by Emperor Charles V. The first church made of wood and clay was built here at the end of the 16th century. A new church on the site of today's San Roque Chapel was completed together with the monastery building in 1604. The present church was designed by the Italian Jesuit Andrea Bianchi and built between 1731 and 1754. Due to a massive crack in the nave, the building was closed about fifteen years later and, after repairs, was re-consecrated on September 28, 1783. On December 14, 1807, the facade collapsed and the then Viceroy Santiago de Liniers commissioned the architect Tomás Toribio with the reconstruction, which began three years later in the classical style. On December 1, 1828, a crowd gathered in the courtyard in front of the Franciscan Church and the Chapel of San Rocco and appointed Juan Lavalle as the new governor of Buenos Aires in place of Manuel Dorrego, who was shot by Lavalle a few weeks later.
Between 1907 and 1911, the facade was completely redesigned in the Bavarian neo-baroque style based on a design by the German architect Ernst Sackmann . Only the altar and furniture remained from the Spanish church. On January 8, 1919, Pope Benedict XV. the church of San Francesco to the rank of minor basilica. In 1942 the church and chapel were declared a national historical monument.
After the bombing of the Plaza de Mayo on June 16, 1955, Peronist demonstrators ravaged and looted the churches and monasteries in downtown Buenos Aires. The St. Francis basilica suffered severe damage, and furniture and fittings inside were destroyed by fire. The building was so damaged that it could not be reopened for worship until 1963.
architecture
The neo-baroque facade has a single portal with a vaulted risalit . The two bell towers protrude from the sides, each of which is closed by an onion-shaped dome. The central part of the facade is dominated by a group of sculptures that were created by the German artist Antonio Vögele in 1910 with Saint Francis of Assisi together with Giotto, Dante Alighieri and Christopher Columbus. The church has a single nave with flat side chapels covered by a series of elongated vaults. The choir is surmounted by a dome with an octagonal drum . After the fire in 1955, the tapestry The glorification of St. Francis designed by Horacio Butler , the second largest in the world after Coventry Cathedral in Great Britain, was installed as the backdrop for the 8 × 12 meter high altar. The Cavaille Coll organ was installed by the German organ builder Luis Oben in 1772 and was not rebuilt after 1955.
The Chapel of San Roque was built between 1751 and 1762 according to plans by the architects Andrés Blanqui, Antonio Masella and Vicente Muñoz. The facade was also redesigned in 1911.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Basílica de San Francisco de Asís on gcatholic.org (English)
- ↑ a b c d e Basílica San Francisco de Asís on baiglesias.com (Spanish)
- ↑ a b Basílica de San Francisco on arcondebuenosaires.com.ar (Spanish)
- ↑ La caja de Dante. In: pagina12. March 17, 2007, accessed December 13, 2019 (Spanish).
Coordinates: 34 ° 36 ′ 38.5 ″ S , 58 ° 22 ′ 17.1 ″ W.