San Francisco de Chiu Chiu
| San Francisco de Chiu Chiu | ||
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Coordinates: 22 ° 21 ′ S , 68 ° 39 ′ W San Francisco de Chiu Chiu on the map of Chile
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| Basic data | ||
| Country | Chile | |
| region | Antofagasta region | |
| Residents | 322 | |
| Detailed data | ||
| height | 2525 m | |
| Time zone | UTC −4 | |
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The village of San Francisco de Chiu Chiu , better known as Chiu-Chiu is a small town near Calama , in the middle of the Atacama Desert in the province of El Loa of the Antofagasta Region . The place is located at an altitude of 2,525 m on the historical Inca Trail and has 322 inhabitants. Neighboring towns are Lasana (8 km north) and Calama (33 km southwest).
Colonial church
The special thing about it is its colonial church, a national monument of Chile since 1951. It was built in 1611 and is surrounded by a wall. In the resulting courtyard there are some old graves of former padres who wanted to bring Christianity to this remote and inhospitable area. Two bell towers, not very high, with a cross on top each rise above the main entrance. What is remarkable, however, is the double-leaf entrance door, which is made of cactus wood. Since only particularly large and old cacti result in something like narrow boards, in the absence of metal nails, these were tied together with leather straps and the door leaf of this church was made from them.
