Todos estos edificios se hacen de diverso modo que en Europa: Estudio arqueoastron\'omico de las iglesias jesu\'iticas de Chiquitos
Alejandro Gangui

TL;DR
This study investigates the spatial orientation of Jesuit churches in Chiquitos, Bolivia, revealing diverse alignment patterns that include solar and equinoctial orientations, and explores their cultural and astronomical significance.
Contribution
It provides the first detailed in situ measurements and analysis of church orientations in Chiquitos, comparing them with other missionary towns and considering astronomical and cultural factors.
Findings
Half of the churches are oriented within the solar range.
Three churches are aligned with equinoctial precision.
Lighting effects may have influenced architectural orientation.
Abstract
The study of the spatial layout of Christian churches has been of great interest since late Antiquity and the beginning of the Early Middle Ages, and has received a new impetus in recent literature when it was recognized that the orientation of their main axes represents a key feature of their architecture. From the earliest Christian communities, the orientation of the church allowed the faithful to pray facing the east, towards the rising Sun. Several authors were careful to point this out in their writings; in particular, prior to the Council of Nicaea (325 AD), the Apostolic Constitutions indicated: "And let it be, first, the elongated building, with its head facing east". We present a detailed analysis of the spatial orientation of the historic churches located in the Jesuit towns of Chiquitania (Bolivia). We have measured in situ the main characteristics of eight churches…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsHistorical and Architectural Studies · Medieval Architecture and Archaeology · Archaeological and Historical Studies
