San Ramón Church () was a 19th-century

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

Tacna Tacna, officially known as San Pedro de Tacna, is a city in southern Peru and the regional capital of the Tacna Region. A very commercially active city, it is located only north of the border with Arica y Parinacota Region from Chile, inland f ...

which played an important role during the

War of the Pacific The War of the Pacific (), also known by War of the Pacific#Etymology, multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Treaty of Defensive Alliance (Bolivia–Peru), Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought over Atacama Desert ...

and the subsequent Chilean administration of the city. The entire complex housed the church and a hospital of the same name built in 1848, which was also used as a psychiatric centre and a

women's prison Approximately 741,000 women are incarcerated in correctional facilities, a 17% increase since 2010 and the female prison population has been increasing across all continents.Máximo Lira, and was later destroyed. Currently the land belongs to the Charity of Tacna and was declared Cultural Heritage of the Nation in 2005, with its reconstruction announced but not yet started.

History

The church was called that because the first

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

, attended by Marshal

Ramón Castilla Ramón Castilla y Marquesado (; 31 August 1797 – 30 May 1867) was a Peruvian ''caudillo'' who served as President of Peru three times as well as the Interim President of Peru (Revolution Self-proclaimed President) in 1863. His earliest p ...

(as

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

), was there, and it was also the place where he consecrated the

Virgin of the Rosary Our Lady of the Rosary (), also known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, is a Marian title. The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, formerly known as Feast of Our Lady of Victory and Feast of the Holy Rosary is celebrated on 7 October in the General ...

Marshal of Peru Grand Marshal of Peru (), commonly referred as Marshal of Peru, is the highest rank in the Peruvian Army. Unlike the other ranks, it is conferred only to an officer who has been victorious at war. List of Marshals of Peru See also * Military ...

War of the Pacific

During the

, the temple was one of the places where the Peruvian troops hid the flag of the "2nd Line" Regiment of the

Chilean Army The Chilean Army () is the land arm of the Chilean Armed Forces. This 80,000-person army (9,200 of which are conscripts) is organized into six divisions, an army aviation brigade and a special operations brigade. In recent years, and after sever ...

's Infantry, captured during the

battle of Tarapacá The Battle of Tarapacá occurred on 27 November 1879 during the Tarapacá Campaign of the War of the Pacific. Three Chilean columns of almost 3,900 soldiers attacked a numerically inferior Peruvian contingent of 3,046 troops at Tarapacá - 50 ...

Mariano Santos Mateo Mariano Santos Mateo (1850 – 7 October 1900) was a Peruvian Civil Guard officer who fought in the War of the Pacific. He became famous by capturing, during the Battle of Tarapacá, the war ensign of the of the Chilean Army, for which he wa ...

. This was recovered in 1880 by Chile. The same year, after the

battle of Tacna The Battle of Tacna, also known as the Battle of the Peak of the Alliance (Spanish: ''Batalla del Alto de la Alianza''), effectively destroyed the Peru-Bolivian alliance against Chile, forged by a secret treaty signed in 1873. On 26 May 1880, ...

, the remains of the Peruvian soldiers were laid to rest in the temple.

Flag procession

During the administration of Tacna by Chile, in 1901, during the National Holidays of Peru on July 28, a procession of the

Peruvian flag The Flag of Peru (), often referred to as The Bicolour (), was adopted by the government of Peru in 1825, and modified in 1950. According to the article 49 of the Constitution of Peru, it is a vertical triband (flag), triband with red outer band ...

with a gold border left from the temple, being the first procession of the city's flag. With this restriction, the "Sociedad de Auxilios Mutuos El Porvenir" of Tacna asks the mayor of Tacna, Salvador Vergara Álvarez, to give it permission to hold a blessing ceremony for the institution's new flag. The demonstration was authorized (after having originally rejected it due to the existing prohibition of displaying Peruvian patriotic symbols) by the Chilean interim mayor of the province of Tacna, General Salvador Vergara Álvarez, with the condition that it had to be done in silence (something that was fulfilled by the Peruvians), "without any manifestation of a patriotic nature" so as not to provoke clashes between Chileans and Peruvians caused by cheers in favor of Peru. With permission, on July 28, 1901, it was carried out. Upon arrival, the flag was carried through uncrowded streets of the city to later be blessed in the church by the parish priest Alejandro Manrique, who blessed the flag by reciting the prayer "The Cross and the Flag" (). After the mass, the members of the society transport the flag in a procession from the temple, continuing along Unanue Street, to their location in Alto Lima. The Peruvian population of Tacna and Arica accompanied it in silence through the streets of Tacna. Finally, at the society's premises, the poet

Federico Barreto Federico Barreto (1862 in Tacna, Peru - 1929 in Marseille, France) was a Peruvian poet and writer best known for his poetry collection ''El cantor del cautiverio''. Early life Barreto's father was a colonel in the Peruvian Army. Barreto himse ...

recited a poem to the flag. From that date on, this would be the only public celebration of the Peruvian national holidays in the provinces of Tacna and

Arica Arica ( ; ) is a commune and a port city with a population of 222,619 in the Arica Province of northern Chile's Arica y Parinacota Region. It is Chile's northernmost city, being located only south of the border with Peru. The city is the ca ...

. After being taken through the central streets of the city, it arrived at the premises of the ''Benemérita Sociedad de Artesanos y Auxilios Mutuos El Porvenir''.

Closure and destruction

On November 24, 1909, the church was closed by Mayor Máximo Lira due to the activities of the church's priests who promoted pro-Peruvian sentiment. The guards continued blocking the entrance uninterruptedly, changing sentinels every 12 hours for approximately one year. The priests also still depended on the

archdiocese of Arequipa The Archdiocese of Arequipa () is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the city of Arequipa in Peru.Decentralized Directorate of Culture tried to recover and value the site before the Regional Government of Tacna. The land is owned by the Charity of Tacna, it was vacated in 1994, and in 2013 it was returned to administration. The Charity, lacking a budget, asked the regional government to prepare a project to request funds from the Peruvian national government for the recovery of the land. This was proposed to the Ministry of Culture but due to the lack of studies it could not be carried out. In 2017 the Directorate of Culture intervened since the site was converted into a parking lot by the Charity.

Gallery

Primera procesión de la bandera peruana en Tacna, 1901.png, First flag parade in 1901 Iglesia San Ramón de Tacna.jpg, The church in 1908 Clausura iglesia San Ramon 1909.JPG, The church being blocked after its closure in 1909 Sacerdotes peruanos expulsados de Tacna y Arica en 1910.jpg, Peruvian priests expelled in 1910

References

{{coord, -18.0118, -70.2529, type:landmark_region:PE, display=title Roman Catholic churches in Peru Buildings and structures in the Department of Tacna