Church of Pica. Pica - CHILE

The streams of the region where it lies Pica have turned this place into a beautiful garden, which sharply contrasts with the arid landscape. The settlement, pre-Hispanic, was soon settled by the Spanish, who already in the 1550s settled in the town a parcel. Shortly afterwards, became the doctrine of Indian place.



Pica is situated in the middle of trade routes linking the coast with Upper Peru. The early boom in silver mining in these areas led to the prosperity of this and other villages in the region, which were intermediate points in the transport of mineral products and foodstuffs. Pica Arequipa and Potosí supplied to agricultural products and wine in particular. After the decline of the mines of Potosi, were the mining boom in the area of Iquique and then exploitation of nitrate Pica economic impulses, which in mid-nineteenth century assumed the character of spa and resting place for the inhabitants of the Tarapaca region.



Between 1880 and 1886 he built the Church of San Andres de Pica, who came to replace the former temple, destroyed by an earthquake. It is a rectangular volume of 19 meters wide by 44 long, built of wood.



Flank the main facade bell towers, square, topped by a cupola. The vain for admission to the central nave, a semicircular arch, is flanked by double pilasters and surmounted by a neoclassical-looking triangular pediment, on the sides two approaches complement the symmetrical facade. The church has three naves separated by fluted columns with Doric capitals. On the apse stands a monumental dome. The construction is of wood and is covered with galvanized iron. Inside is a collection of colonial religious imagery with a nearly life-size figures, depicting the Last Supper.