Today Asya, Serena, and I went to Maipu to see the Santuario Nacional. The Santuario Nacional is a massive church that was built to commemorate the Battle of Maipu, considered to be the victory which won Chile its independence from Spain. The church is a Modernist building which was built over the course of many years. The church faces the main avenue in Maipu and it is visible from the main intersection where the metro is located. The main intersection was bustling and full of people, there was a mall, vendors, and dozens of buses. Walking along the avenue towards the church, the busyness quickly went away and we found ourselves in a massive sand plaza surrounded by semicircular colonnades on both sides. When you’re in the plaza, the scale of the church is very overwhelming.
Upon entering the church, the first thing I noticed was the arches. They weren’t traditional semicircles, but instead parabolic curves. The ceiling curved down from the tower in the front to the altar in the back and it was articulated with coffers. There was a large stained glass window on the front façade that according to Martinez (a guide who we befriended) is one of the tallest stained glass windows in the world. There are also stepped stained glass windows flanking the sides. The apse of the church looks a lot more like a U.N. hall than a church, because it is ringed with flags of the world. In the center is a statue of the Virgin Carmen.
The altar at Santuario Nacional
After visiting the church itself, we went to the top of the tower (where we met Martinez). There is a window on the floor of the tower which lets you look down into the church from above. The window is also a compass and points to sites around the world where it is said that the Virgin Mary has appeared. Our guide told us that the tower is about the same height as the Statue of Liberty. He said that Maipu is built on an area with poor soil and an aquifer, so most of the buildings are only two stories tall. Because of this, the church has foundations that are over two hundred feet deep and the main material used was concrete to protect against earthquakes. Overall, the building was very interesting and a unique church.
Interior of Santuario Nacional