St Raphael's Church ( es, Iglesia de San Rafael Arcángel) is a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

in San Rafael, Antioquia,

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. The church is part of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Sonsón–Rionegro The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sonsón–Rionegro ( la, Sonsonensis – Rivi Nigri) is a diocese located in the cities of Sonsón and Rionegro in the Ecclesiastical province of Medellín in Colombia. History * 18 March 1957: Established as Dioce ...

, dedicated to the

Archangel Raphael Raphael (, "God has healed"), ''Rəfāʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Răp̄āʾēl''; lit. 'God has healed'; grc, Ραφαήλ, ''Raphaḗl''; cop, ⲣⲁⲫⲁⲏⲗ, ''Rafaêl''; ar, رافائيل, ''Rāfā’īl'', or , ''Isrāfīl''; am, ሩፋ� ...

History

The first church was built on the site between 1864 and 1866 by Juan Mazo and the brothers Juan and Agustín Mira, and was a small

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

made of

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...

and

bahareque , also spelled , is a traditional building technique used in regions such as Caldas, which is one of the 32 departments of Colombia.. , which came from the word , is an old Spanish term for walls made of bamboo ( in Spanish) and soil. Guadua is a ...

known as El Sueldo. Due to the distance from other churches, the Bishop of

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

, Herrera Restrepo, created a new parish, with José de Jesús Correa as the priest. He believed that the chapel and the village were based in a very remote and narrow location. The inhabitants of El Sueldo moved to live near the river, and Correa began building a new church in August 1904, with plans by the architect Emigdio Rincón. The construction of the building was completed by Correa's successors. The church has three

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 ...

s and one tower. Inside there are three altars: one is the high altar, another has the image of the Archangel Rafael, and the other has the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The facade of the church faces onto the main square of the town, with a

bust Bust commonly refers to: * A woman's breasts * Bust (sculpture), of head and shoulders * An arrest Bust may also refer to: Places *Bust, Bas-Rhin, a city in France *Lashkargah, Afghanistan, known as Bust historically Media * ''Bust'' (magazine ...

of Correa.

References

Raphael's Roman Catholic churches in Colombia Buildings and structures in Antioquia Department {{Colombia-church-stub