São Miguel das Missões

Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis: San Ignacio Mini, Santa Ana, Nuestra Señora de Loreto and Santa Maria la Mayor (Argentina), Ruins of São Miguel das Missões (Brazil) *
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country	Argentina and Brazil
Type	Cultural
Criteria	iv
Reference	275-291
Region **	Latin America and the Caribbean
Inscription history
Inscription	1983 (7th Session)
Extensions	1984
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO

São Miguel das Missões (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɐ̃w̃ miˈɡɛw das misˈõȷ̃s]; 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 Spanish Jesuit Reductions in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. Jesuit missionaries founded the mission in the 18th century in part to catechise the Guaraní Indian population and to protect the natives from the Portuguese slave traders known as the Bandeirantes.

Façade of São Miguel das Missões.

The mission was built between 1735 to around 1745. The Treaty of Madrid in 1750 handed sovereignty over the area from Spain to Portugal and the Jesuits were ordered to leave. Their refusal to comply led to the mission's termination in a battle with a Portuguese-Spanish army which had been sent to enforce the newly agreed upon frontier between the two colonial powers. The cathedral in nearby Santo Ângelo city is modeled after the São Miguel das Missões reduction.

Old church bell and native art in the Missions Museum.

The ruins of São Miguel das Missões are protected by UNESCO since 1983. Occupying an area of ​​1229.8 km ².

See 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

• Satellite view of São Miguel das Missões
• Jesuit Missions of the Guarani (in Portuguese)
• São Miguel das Missões
• Additional photos of São Miguel das Missões
• Official São Miguel das Missões Unesco page
• SA Notícias - news from de city and region