The Church of Tenaún or Church of Our Lady of Patrocinio (Patronage)— — is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located in the town of

Tenaún Tenaún is a Chilean village within the commune of Dalcahue, on Chiloé Island of Chiloé Archipelago. It is located about 36 kilometers from Dalcahue, 28 kilometers from Quemchi and 54 kilometers from Castro. The town of Tenaún is accessed from ...

, commune of

Dalcahue Dalcahue is a port city and a commune in Chiloé Province, on Chiloé Island, Los Lagos Region, Chile. Demographics According to the 2002 census by the National Statistics Institute, the Dalcachue commune spans an area of and had 10,693 inhab ...

on the

Chiloé Archipelago The Chiloé Archipelago (, , ) is a group of islands lying off the coast of Chile, in the Los Lagos Region. It is separated from mainland Chile by the Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and the Gulf of Corcovado in the s ...

Los Lagos Region Los Lagos Region ( , 'Region of the Lakes') is one of regions of Chile, Chile's 16 regions, which are first order administrative divisions, and comprises four provinces: Chiloé Province, Chiloé, Llanquihue Province, Llanquihue, Osorno Provin ...

, southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. The Church of Tenaún was declared a National Monument of Chile in 1999 and is one of the 16

Churches of Chiloé The Churches of Chiloé in Chile's Chiloé Archipelago are a unique architectural phenomenon in the Americas and one of the most prominent styles of Chilota architecture, Chilotan architecture. Unlike classical Spanish colonial architecture, the chu ...

that were declared

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

s on 30 November 2000. “Tenaún” means “three peaks” in the native language of the area, and it is believed that the church’s three pillars symbolize this. The

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of the Church of Tenaún is

Our Lady of Patrocinio Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" Places * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France Other uses * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a governm ...

, whose feast day is celebrated on January 30. This church leads the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Patrocinio San José, Tenaún, one of the 24 parishes that form the Diocese of Ancud.Diócesis de San Carlos de Ancud
Iglesia.cl. In Spanish. Retrieved 6 January 2013.

Architectural characteristics

The Church of Tenaún has a length of 42.40 meters and a width of 14 meters, the height of the central nave is 6.90 meters, while the height of the lateral nave is 4.30 meters. Its highest tower has a height of 26.10 meters. The church is based on a base of stones and coigüe wood. Its structure is composed mainly of wood of tepa, tenío and canelo. The interior lining is made of larch wood, while the outer covering is made of larch tiles and cypress overlap of the Guaitecas and larch. The roof is made of corrugated sheets of galvanized iron. The church of Tenaún has a good state of conservation. It was restored in 1999, between 2005 and 2006, the tower and the facade were restored; Between May 2010 and May 2011, the nave and the vault were restored.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Church of Tenaun Wooden churches in Chile Churches in Chiloé Archipelago World Heritage Sites in Chile Roman Catholic churches in Chile Colonial architecture in Chile

Architectural characteristics

See also

References