San Ignacio

Today we visited the place the movie "The Mission" was made at and about. Filming also took place at Iguazu Falls. The ruins of the mission including a massive church which originally had 20 meter walls were sitting in the centre of a rather basic little town but in the mid-1500s it was a large town with two missionaries and thousands on Guarani people who actually built the whole establishment. It's incredible to consider the influence and changes those two men had on that community. They taught the locals how to build with stone and they changed from a nomadic life to living in the town they built. They made everything including metal work, casting bells for the church and carving the angels above the doorway of the church. The architecture is called Jungle Baroque. Eventually the Spanish
Powers decided the missionaries had too much power in the colony which could lead to rebellion and they were ordered to disband. After this the mission fell into ruin and only in the 1940s was there an attempt to save what remained. There isn't much to say about the town. The hotel was basic, the town had lots of dogs moseying about. There were a few kids begging and hassling around the mission. I noticed quite a few Indian houses in the area with small wooden houses and a garden of vegetables including lots of corn.