The Sacred Hearts Church 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 at 2086 Independencia Street, in El Almendral neighborhood, in

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

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 ...

. Staffed by the

Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary () abbreviated SS.CC., is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for priests and brothers. The congregation is also known as the Picpus because their first house w ...

, it was built to serve as the church for the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones de Valparaíso community. The church was declared as a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

of Chile in 2003, within the category of Historic Monuments.

History

Ship ''Sylphide'' arrived in Valparaíso on May 13, 1834 from

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, bringing as passengers four priests of the

whose final destination was the

Gambier Islands The Gambier Islands ( or ) are an archipelago in French Polynesia, located at the southeast terminus of the Tuamotu archipelago. They cover an area of , and are made up of the Mangareva Islands, a group of high islands remnants of a caldera alo ...

, in the

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

. Chrysostome Liausu was the only of them who remained residing in Valparaíso. He formed the first community of the congregation in a port of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. In 1837 Liausu was authorized by the Cabildo of the city to create a school, thus establishing the first private school in the independent Chile, namely the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones de Valparaíso. In 1840, the school was moved to a site on Independencia Street, its current location, which was later enlarged by purchases of adjoining lands. A

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

was built on the site. In late 1860, the father Oliver ordered the construction of a new church, which was designed by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s Lucien Hénault and Arturo Mecking. The foundation stone was laid on May 3, 1868. The architect Juan Eduardo Fehrman took over the final construction stage between 1870 and 1872. The church was inaugurated on February 6, 1874, despite having an unfinished tower. The

2010 Chile earthquake The 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami () occurred off the coast of central Chile on Saturday, 27 February at 03:34:12 local time (06:34:12 UTC), having a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale, with intense shaking lasting for about ...

badly damaged the church. As a result, it had to be repaired. The restoration work included the reparation of cracked walls, repainting of interior walls, and restoration of facades. The work lasted approximately a year at a cost of $240 million, half funded by a restoration program from the

National Council of Culture and the Arts The National Council of Culture and the Arts (CNCA) was the Chilean government agency responsible for arts and cultural policy. The council was founded in 2003 and amalgamated arts and cultural policy under a single agency. It was a cabinet-level ...

Description

Located on Independencia Street, between Freire and Rodríguez streets, the church and the adjoining school have similar architectural styles and occupy an entire city block front. The facade is Romanesque and Gothic Revival in style, while the interior has a Gothic character. The interior of the church includes an image named ''Cristo Tradicional'', which was carved by an

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

ian artist, who was visiting his son, a member of the congregation, in Valparaíso.

References

{{coord missing, Chile 1874 in Chile Buildings and structures in Valparaíso Gothic Revival church buildings in Chile Romanesque Revival architecture in Chile 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Chile Romanesque Revival church buildings