The Sacred Heart Church ( es, link=no, Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús), also known as the Church of the Orphans ( es, link=no, Iglesia de los Huérfanos), is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church dedicated to the

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devo ...

, located at the intersection of Jirón Azángaro and

Jirón Apurímac Jirón Apurímac is a street in the Damero de Pizarro, located in the historic centre of Lima, Peru. The street starts at its intersection with Abancay Avenue, behind the Javier Alzamora Valdez Building, and continues until it reaches Jirón Cara ...

in the

historic centre of Lima Located principally in the city centre or Cercado de Lima and Rímac areas, the Historic Centre of Lima is among the most important tourist destinations in Peru. Foundation The city of Lima, the capital of Peru, was founded by Francisco Piz ...

, Peru.

History

The first chapel in the area was built at the beginning of the 17th century and was financed by the Spanish Luis de Ojeda, known as 'Luis Pecador'. In its origins it was linked to the shelter of orphans, hence its name and its

dedication Dedication is the act of consecrating an altar, temple, church, or other sacred building. Feast of Dedication The Feast of Dedication, today Hanukkah, once also called "Feast of the Maccabees," is a Jewish festival observed for eight days fr ...

to the Virgin of Atocha. In 1612 this was elevated to the category of vice-parish. In 1657 the church was intervened but the nature of the changes made is unknown. The temple appears with a different and inverse layout with the current one in the plan of the Mercedarian Pedro Nolasco Mere de 1685. It had a double-sided coverage on a wooden framework. The earthquakes of 1687 devastated the structure. Since the earthquakes and during the first decades of the 18th century, the site was used as a

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

for

carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...

s and as a

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

. In 1742 the land changed hands and it was decided to build a new church designed whose dimensions coincide with those of the current one, and which was by Manuel de Torquemada and built by Cristóbal de Vargas. The earthquake of 1746 caused the collapse of this second structure, which had been completed that same year. Despite the destruction, there are indications that the current construction has the same plans as that of that time. The temple was inaugurated on April 6, 1766. The design is attributed to the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

priest .

Architecture

It is the only Catholic temple in Peru and Latin America with an

elliptical Elliptical may mean: * having the shape of an ellipse, or more broadly, any oval shape ** in botany, having an elliptic leaf shape ** of aircraft wings, having an elliptical planform * characterised by ellipsis (the omission of words), or by conc ...

plan, similar to that of the Catholic temples of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. It is in the ''Rococo limeño'' style, with late Baroque ornamentation. It has a light blue vaulted roof, from the beginning of its construction, which sought to imitate the nuances of the

sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

. The main door on the main façade is flanked between twin

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

s. These have an

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al plan on which there is a

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

with the same shape that rests on four pillars. They also have a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

over the

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

. The façade is composed of two bodies. The first is made of stone and contains the entrance opening,

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s and a frieze with

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s and metopes in the

Corinthian style The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

. The second is characterized by the counterpoint between curved and straight lines, which gives rise to binary pilasters,

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s and an oblong elliptical window, above which is the single

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

on the façade, which contains the effigy of the

of Jesus. Due to the contrast between the bodies, the church harbors stylistic similarities with the Panteón de los Próceres and the , and due to the use of multiple binary pilasters with the church of San Pedro. For its part, the side cover is from the 19th century and its design is neoclassical. The interior is made up of the subchoir, the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and the presbytery, with the addition on the right side of a

baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

that evokes the main façade of the . Around the curvature there are four shallow niche chapels.

References

{{coord, -12.05265, -77.03155, format=dms, type:landmark_region:PE, display=title Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Huérfanos) Historic Centre of Lima Buildings and structures completed in the 17th century

History

Architecture

See also

References