La orientaci\'on de las iglesias jesu\'iticas en Am\'erica: resultados preliminares

TL;DR

This study investigates the orientations of Jesuit mission churches in America to determine if their alignments relate to celestial bodies, combining archaeological, historical, and satellite data for preliminary insights.

Contribution

It offers the first comparative analysis of Jesuit church orientations across different American regions using interdisciplinary methods.

Findings

Preliminary evidence of specific orientation patterns in Jesuit churches

Indications of possible celestial alignment in church orientations

Comparison across regions suggests cultural influences on architecture

Abstract

We study the Jesuit mission churches in America, which for almost two centuries were the most representative constructions in the process of Christian evangelisation on the continent until the expulsion of the Order in 1767. The main objective is to discern possible orientation patterns in the structures studied and to evaluate whether these orientations are related to the rising of the sun or other celestial bodies on the local horizon, as suggested by the texts of early Christian writers, which could provide important and novel information about their history and construction. Archaeoastronomical fieldwork has been carried out in the past in two large regions of South America: the historic provinces of Paraquaria and Chiquitan\'ia (eastern present-day Bolivia). These data must now be interpreted within a broader cultural and geographical context. Thus, in order to obtain a more complete picture of religious architecture on the continent, it is necessary to analyse and compare the results with the orientation of Jesuit churches built in the 17th and 18th centuries in North America (viceroyalty of New Spain). We approached this project through the historical and cultural analysis of the former mission sites and by means of satellite imagery. In this paper we present some preliminary results we have reached.