Sacred places in Chile: temples, churches, shrines and mosques

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Catholicism · Chiloé · 1910 tới 1912Church of San Francisco, CastroIglesia de San Francisco de Castro, Templo de San Francisco de Castro, Church of San Francisco Castro, Nhà thờ San Francisco Castro

The largest wooden church among the Churches of Chiloé, built from 1910 to 1912 after designs by the Italian architect Eduardo Provasoli and erected by master carpenter Salvador Sierpe and local Chilotan craftsmen using native alerce, ciprés, and coigüe timber. Featuring twin 42-meter towers, a 32-meter octagonal dome, and corrugated iron cladding painted bright yellow and purple, it is part of the Churches of Chiloé UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2000.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Churches of Chiloé, 2000), Historic Monument of Chile (1979)Góc đường San Martín và Latorre, trước Plaza de Armas, Castro, vùng Los Lagos

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Photo: Jeanaraya, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Catholicism · Santiago Metropolitan Region · Khởi lập giáo xứ đầu tiên ngày 12 tháng 2 năm 1541 bởi Pedro de Valdivia và nâng lên hàng nhà thờ chính tòa ngày 27 tháng 6 năm 1561 bởi Đức Giáo hoàng Piô IV; công trình thứ năm hiện nay khởi công ngày 1 tháng 7 năm 1748 dưới thời Giám mục Manuel de Alday, thiết kế mặt tiền Tân cổ điển bởi kiến trúc sư người Ý Joaquín Toesca từ năm 1780 và hoàn thiện hai tháp chuông cùng nội thất bởi Ignacio Cremonesi từ năm 1898 tới năm 1906Santiago Metropolitan CathedralCatedral Metropolitana de Santiago, Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Holy Virgin in Santiago de Chile

The majestic Neoclassical metropolitan cathedral anchoring the northwestern corner of the historic Plaza de Armas in downtown Santiago, tracing its origins to Pedro de Valdivia's 1541 parish foundation and the 1561 diocese of Pope Pius IV, constructed in its fifth incarnation from 1748 onward with a monumental stone facade by Italian architect Joaquin Toesca (1780) and twin bell towers and gilded vaults completed by Ignacio Cremonesi between 1898 and 1906.

National Historical Monument of Chile (Decree No. 5058 of July 6, 1951) and Mother Church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de ChilePlaza de Armas, Historic Center of Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Republic of Chile

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Photo: Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

the Bahá'í Faith · Santiago Metropolitan Region (Penalolen Commune) · Được Shoghi Effendi hoạch định từ năm 1953; Tòa Công Lý Quốc Tế phát động thi tuyển thiết kế năm 2001 và chọn đồ án của kiến trúc sư Canada Siamak Hariri (Hariri Pontarini Architects); khởi công xây dựng tháng 11 năm 2010 và khánh thành trọng thể từ ngày 13 tới ngày 19 tháng 10 năm 2016Baha'i House of Worship of South America, SantiagoTemplo Baha'i de Sudamerica, Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of South America in Penalolen, Santiago

The continental Baha'i Mother Temple of South America perched in the Andean foothills of Penalolen overlooking the Santiago basin, designed by Canadian architect Siamak Hariri (Hariri Pontarini Architects) and dedicated in October 2016 as a 30-meter-high dome composed of nine translucent twisting wing-sails clad in cast glass on the exterior and Portuguese alabaster on the interior above seismic isolation bearings.

Mother Temple of South America (Eighth and Final Continental Baha'i House of Worship in the World) and Winner of the 2019 RAIC International PrizeDiagonal Las Torres 2000, Andean Foothills, Penalolen Commune, Santiago, Republic of Chile

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Photo: Tiago Masrour, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Ancestor Veneration · Valparaiso Region (Isla de Pascua Province - Rapa Nui) · Cư dân Polynesia do vua tổ Hotu Matu'a dẫn đầu định cư khoảng thế kỷ 10 tới thế kỷ 12; thời kỳ hoàng kim tạc tượng đá Moai tại núi lửa Rano Raraku và dựng trên các đàn tế Ahu từ thế kỷ 11 tới thế kỷ 16; chuyển sang nghi lễ Người Chim tại Orongo từ thế kỷ 17 tới năm 1867; phục dựng 15 đại tượng tại Ahu Tongariki từ năm 1992 tới năm 1996 và ghi danh Di sản Thế giới UNESCO năm 1995Rapa Nui National Park (Ahu Tongariki)Parque Nacional Rapa Nui, Ahu Tongariki and Rano Raraku Quarry, Easter Island Moai Sacred Ancestral Statues

The extraordinary Polynesian sacred landscape on isolated Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the southeastern Pacific, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, where between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries Rapa Nui artisans carved nearly 900 monolithic volcanic tuff statues (Moai) at the Rano Raraku quarry and raised them on over 300 coastal ceremonial stone platforms (Ahu), crowned by the 220-meter-long Ahu Tongariki with its fifteen restored ancestral figures channeling spiritual mana over the island.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Inscribed 1995, Ref. 715, preserving 887 Moai statues and 313 Ahu platforms) and National Historical Monument of Chile (1935)Ahu Tongariki, Rano Raraku Quarry, and Orongo Ceremonial Village, Rapa Nui National Park, Easter Island, Republic of Chile

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Photo: Camill1336, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Catholicism · Santiago Metropolitan Region · Khởi nguồn từ nguyện đường Đức Mẹ Cứu Giúp năm 1543 và giao cho Dòng Phanxicô năm 1553; đặt đá khởi dựng nhà thờ đá hiện nay ngày 5 tháng 1 năm 1572 và thánh hiến năm 1618 (hoàn tất năm 1622); đứng vững qua các trận đại địa chấn năm 1647, 1730, 1906, 1985 và 2010; xây dựng tháp đồng hồ Tân cổ điển của kiến trúc sư Fermín Vivaceta từ năm 1857 tới năm 1860San Francisco Church, SantiagoIglesia y Convento de San Francisco de Santiago, Santuario de Nuestra Senora del Socorro, Museo de Arte Colonial de San Francisco

The oldest surviving colonial architectural monument in Santiago and all of Chile, constructed of massive stone blocks by the Franciscan Order between 1572 and 1618 along the Alameda boulevard with a Mudejar coffered cypress ceiling that has withstood four centuries of major earthquakes, crowned by Fermin Vivaceta's 1860 Neoclassical clock tower and housing Pedro de Valdivia's 1540 statue of Our Lady of Succor alongside the 17th-century Cusco painting cycle of Saint Francis and Gabriela Mistral's 1945 Nobel Prize medal.

Oldest Surviving Colonial Monument in Chile, National Historical Monument of Chile (Decree No. 5058 of July 6, 1951), and UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List (1998)Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins 834 (La Alameda), Downtown Santiago, Republic of Chile

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Photo: Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

IIHelp Us Build This

This library is open and free, and it records its own progress in public. Three things you can help with today:

Name a place we missedA founding temple, a church, a mosque, a shrine the table above does not have. Send the name, the province, and one line on why it belongs.
Send a photograph with an open licenceNothing is published without both the photographer and the licence. Your own photograph with your permission, or an openly licensed one, are both welcome.
Report an errorA wrong date, a wrong original name, a wrong lineage, a wrong address. A library that is wrong once is not trusted again, so corrections are very welcome.

Write to thayungkhiem@gmail.com

IIILog

24/10/2026Completed three major initiatives on the same day: (1) Verified primary international sources and published the remaining 199 full English editions across 192 countries and territories, officially completing Stage D with 100% bilingual Vietnamese and English coverage across the entire library. (2) Visually verified and published 35 openly licensed Wikimedia Commons photographs for 22 sites in Vietnam and 13 international sanctuaries. (3) Authored 100 new bilingual sacred place monographs with real photographs for Stage C across 25 countries and territories (South Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Canada and Mexico), expanding each from 1 to 5 places and bringing the library to 761 sacred places.
29/09/2026Officially opened the doors of Hall of Myriad Paths to readers worldwide as a living spiritual library that grows every day. On the same day, authored 60 new Stage A sacred place monographs across 60 countries in the Nordic and Baltic regions, the Balkans, the Gulf, Central Asia, European microstates, Africa, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean (including Roskilde Cathedral, Hallgrímskirkja, the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius, Ostrog Monastery, Malé Friday Mosque, Sulayman-Too, Old Orhei, the Temple in the Sea and Ambohimanga), while verifying and publishing 59 openly licensed photographs for the second and third batches.

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?Quick Questions

Why are there no opening hours or ticket prices

Because they change constantly. A library that is wrong once about a practical detail loses its standing on everything else. Check with the place itself before you travel.

Where do the images come from

From Wikimedia Commons under open licences, each credited to its photographer, or photographed by UK MASTER ACADEMY. No image is published without both its author and its licence.

How were these places chosen

Four tests: it is officially listed as a heritage site, it belongs to a tradition this library covers, its site and orientation can be read in feng shui terms, and an openly licensed photograph exists.

Why is my country still grey

The library opens one country at a time, beginning with the countries that have the most readers, and within each country with its most significant places. A grey country is simply one whose turn has not come. Suggestions are welcome through the page of Master Ưng Khiêm.

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