São Miguel das Missões

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis: San Ignacio Mini, Santa Ana, Nuestra Señora de Loreto and Santa Maria la Mayor (Argentina), Ruins of Sao Miguel das Missoes (Brazil)


State Party = ARG and BRA
Type = Cultural
Criteria = iv
ID = 275-291
Region = Latin America and the Caribbean
Year = 1983
Session = 7th
Extension = 1984
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/275

São Miguel das Missões (Portuguese for St. Michael of the Missions) is a Unesco World Heritage site located in the small town of São Miguel das Missões in the northwestern region of Rio Grande do Sul, a state in southern Brazil. It is also known as São Miguel Arcanjo and by its Spanish language name San Miguel. It was one of the many Jesuit Reductions in Argentina and Brazil. Jesuit missionaries founded the mission in the 18th Century in part to catechise the Guaraní indian population and to protect the natives from Spanish and Portuguese slave traders.

The Mission was built from around 1735 to around 1745. Despite the efforts of the Jesuits, the slave trade of the Spanish and Portuguese empires eventually conquered and the Mission was abandoned. The Cathedral in nearby Santo Ângelo city is modeled after the São Miguel das Missões reduction.

The ruins of São Miguel das Missões are protected by UNESCO since 1983. Geographic coordinates for the site are: coord|28.562778|S|54.553889|W|.

ee also

*"The Mission", a 1986 film starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, about the Jesuit Missions of the Guaraní. The set recreates what São Miguel das Missões may have looked like in the 18th century.
*Jesuit Reductions
*San Ignacio Miní
*Guarani War

External links

* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=santo+angelo,+brazil&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=18&ll=-28.547933,-54.555616&spn=0.003412,0.006738&t=k Satellite view of São Miguel das Missões]
* [http://www.missoes.iphan.gov.br/ Jesuit Missions of the Guarani] (in Portuguese)
* [http://blog.biarnesa.com/en/index.php/2008/05/22/15-the-ruins-of-sao-miguel-in-rio-grande-do-sul São Miguel das Missões]
* [http://www.fotoserumos.com/sao_miguel.htm Additional photos of São Miguel das Missões]
* [http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/291 Official São Miguel das Missões Unesco page]
* [http://www.sanoticias.com/ SA Notícias - news from de city and region]