San Ignacio Miní
Red sandstone ruins of a Guaraní-Jesuit mission town, the best preserved in Argentina.
The reduction of San Ignacio Miní was first founded by the Society of Jesus in 1610 in the Guairá region, in what is now Brazil. Repeated raids by the bandeirante slavers forced the community of Guaraní and Jesuits to move south, and after several relocations the town was laid out on its present site, where the plan was completed in 1696. At its height it held some three to four thousand people, with a great plaza, a church, a college, workshops, a cemetery and long ranges of terraced dwellings built of the local reddish sandstone.
The mission was abandoned after the Jesuits were expelled in 1768, and the buildings were burned during the fighting of 1817, after which the forest covered the site. Systematic clearing and consolidation began in the 1940s and the ruins are the most thoroughly restored of the Argentine missions. The church front, attributed to the Jesuit brother José Brasanelli, carries deeply carved baroque ornament worked by Guaraní craftsmen. UNESCO inscribed the site, with three other missions in Argentina and Brazil, on the World Heritage List in 1984.
Highlights
- Carved sandstone church front attributed to José Brasanelli
- Long ranges of Guaraní dwellings around the great plaza
- UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984
- Interpretation centre and evening sound and light show
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