Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos

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Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos

• Robert H. Jackson

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Beginning in 1691, Jesuit missionaries
established missions in the Chiquitos and Moxos
regions of eastern Bolivia, among sedentatry
agriculturalists. San Francisco Javier founded in
1691 was the first. Eventually there were 10
missions in Chiquitos, and some 20 among the
Moxos.
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Typical Chiquitos house.
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Chiquitos homestead.
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At about the same time Jesuit missionaries also
began establishing missions in the Moxos region
(modern Beni) north of of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
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Population of Moxos Missions
Population of the Mojos Missions in Selected Years
Mission 1717 1748
Desposorio 1,576 1,199
Santa Rosa 666 388
Loreto 1,768 1,054
San Francisco Xavier 1,990 1,710
San Pedro 2,864 3,296
Exaltacion de la Sta Cruz 1,684 1,593
San Ignacio 1,981 621
San Jose 1,008 686
San Luis Gonzaga 1,011 523
San Francisco de Borja 1,256 998
San Pablo 2,048 1,324
Los Santos Reyes 1,641 1,782
San Juan de Guarayos 581
Concepcion 2,152 2,803
San Joaquin 2,310 2,112
Santa Ana 1,394
Santa Maria Magdalena 3,112
San Martin 1,222
San Nicolas 1,816
San Miguel 3,444
San Simon 493
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Concepcion de Baures.
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19th century diagram of Concepcion mission in
Moxos.
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San Ramon (Moxos).
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Santa Maria Magdalena.
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Exaltacion.
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Detail of church façade.
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Exaltacion (Moxos).
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San Joaquin.
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Trinidad.
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The Jesuits established ten missions in the
Chiquitos region. They were San Francisco
Xavier-1691, San Rafael-1696, San Jose-1697, San
Juan Bautista-1699, Concepcion-1706, San
Miguel-1721, San Ignacio-1748, Santiago-1754
Santa Ana-1755, Santa Corazon de Jesus-1760.
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The Jesuits settled thousands of natives to the
ten missions, and at the time of the Jesuit
expulsion in 1767 some 23,000 lived on the
missions.
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Rio de la Plata region and the Chiquitos missions
from a contemporary map.
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Close up of map showing the Chiquitos region.
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Chiquitos and Surrounding areas from a 1796 map.
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Mission Populations in Selected Years
Mission 1717 1743 1750
San Fran. Xavier 1,680 2,379 2,497
Concepcion 1,226 2,002 2,260
San Rafael 1,532 2,293 2,543
San Jose 1,953 2,375 2,803
San Miguel 3,000 1,972
San Juan Bautista 1,969 1,880
San Ignacio 683 1,694
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Population of the Chiquitos Missions in Selected
Years
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Population of San Javier Mission, 1713-1833.
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Population of Concepcion mission, 1714-1833.
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Population of San Rafael Mission, 1717-1833.
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Population of San Jose Mission, 1713-1833.
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Population of San Miguel Mission, 1735-1833.
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Population of San Juan Mission, 1718-1833
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Population of San Ignacio Mission, 1718-1847.
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Population of Santa Corazon Mission, 1761-1833.
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Population of Santa Ana Mission, 1755-1847.
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Population of Santiago Mission, 1755-1833.
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San Francisco Javier, the first mission
established in 1691. The church was built
1749-1752.
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Mission Church.
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Close up of church façade.
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Interior of the Church.
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Cloister.
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Cloister.
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Cloister.
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Concepcion established in 1709. The church dates
to 1752-1756.
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Church.
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A second view of the church.
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Another view of the church.
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Detail of the façade of the church.
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Interior of church.
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Cloister.
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Cloister.
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Cloister.
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Belltower.
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Santa Ana established in 1755.
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Mission church.
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Detail of the church.
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Cloister.
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Exposed wall of Santa Ana church showing building
techniques.
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San Rafael established in 1696. The church dates
to 1745-1749.
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Interior of the Church.
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San Rafael belltower.
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San Miguel established in 1721.
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San Miguel.
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Cloister.
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San Jose established in 1698. The church dates to
1740.
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San Jose.
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San Jose.
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Church from cloister.
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Detail of cloister.
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Detail of cloister.
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Detail of cloister.
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19th Century Diagram of San Jose Mission.
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19th Century drawing of San Jose.
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San Ignacio de Velasco established in 1748. View
of colonial-era church torn down in 1948.
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Reconstructed church at San Ignacio.
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Tower from the church of San Juan Bautista
mission.
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Religious motifs from missions.
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UNESCO has added the Chiquitos missions to its
Cultural Heritage list, which hopefully will
insure the survival of these historical
structures.
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I would like to thank REDFISH.TO/BOLIVIA for
permission to use photographs of the Chiquitos
missions. I would like to thank Cynthia Radding
who provided population data used in this
PowerPoint, along with the Archivo y Biblioteca
Nacionales de Bolivia, and to Ariel Yablon,
Assistant Professor at the University of New
England (Maine), who was Dr. Raddings research
assistant who helped put the population tables
together.