Ancient Lipscomb Church in Chiloé?!

by Julia Morgan

Nope.

This is the Iglesia de San Francisco (Church of San Francisco), aka Iglesia Apóstal Santiago, located in Castro, the capital of Chiloé. Tis one of several wooden churches showed to our group by Christian, our very lively and knowledgeable tour guide.

This church is the main Catholic Church of Castro. We learned that it took two years to build (1910 – 1912) and was originally constructed using no nails, just wood. The building we saw is a reconstruction of the original from 1567 (the same year Castro was founded). 

Further research led me to discover that it was built after the name of the apostle James (Santiago in Spanish), which was to be used in the evangelization of the indigenous peoples of Chiloé.

I've never really though about the fact that "Santiago" is the Spanish name for James. It's kinda cool though-- James is one of Paul's most beautiful and poignant letters, in my opinion.

Anyways. I adore the vibrancy of colors on la Iglesia de San Francisco and believe that more churches in the US should be painted similarly. :)