Iglesia San Juan Bautista

San Juan Bautista Church

Location: Buenos Aires Street between Belgrano and San Martín. Built in 1904, this temple still retains its original architecture.

On December 13, 1875, the Municipal Development Commission created the First Pro-Temple Commission. Several years passed, and the Municipality promoted the construction.

In August 1899, a new Pro-Temple commission was formed, including Don Nicolás López, Don Cesar Resoagli, Francisco Sperón, Saturnino Blanco, and Camilo Vallejos.

Finally, in 1904, the realization of the old temple’s desire became a reality. It was built by the Stalla brothers and completed by the Pro-Temple Commission, led by Nicolás López.

The inauguration is presumed to have taken place on September 7, 1904. The temple still preserves its original architecture; its elements are of neoclassical order. It has three naves and a gabled roof with wooden beams, an atrium with columns crowned by bell towers, two lateral towers, and it culminates at the top with a tympanum (columns). The load-bearing walls are masonry, plastered and painted, and the roof is made of zinc.

The main altar is formed by intricately carved wooden columns, almost Baroque in style due to its exuberance and ornamentation. It features imagery such as the Immaculate Conception and the Child Jesus placed on the main altar, with an image height of 1.40 meters. There are also depictions of the Sorrowful Mother and the Child Jesus.

Oratory of the Immaculate Conception: It was a chapel constructed of shelves, mud, and a thatched roof. Inside, there was a large box that served as a confessional. The parish priest in charge was a former Carlist. In terms of its date, there is documentation that this place already existed in July 1883, which later burned down at the end of that year. The saints, utensils, and liturgical ornaments were distributed in different houses where mass was occasionally celebrated. Most of the images were stored in the estate of Don Guillermo Aguirre, from where, it is said, Saint Anthony, the current patron saint of San Antonio Apipé Island, emerged. After this episode, “San Juan Degollado” emerged, a popular cult centered around a wooden head with a clear Jesuit origin, which had an altar in the house of Doña Isabel Romero.

The church possesses a clay image found in the Jesuit reduction of San Carlos, believed to be the Virgin Mary. In addition to the image of Saint John the Baptist, which occupies the center of the main altar and is a modern image brought from Spain (Barcelona), replacing the previous one.

On the exterior, there is a mural designed using the sgraffito technique by local artist J. Aguirre Sotto, in July 2002. The scene depicted in the mural represents the moment when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, with a dove beside him, symbolizing the Holy Spirit descending upon him and bestowing its gifts.

From 1998, a multipurpose room was built, a floor was laid, it was entirely painted, and grilles were installed as a closing element for the facade, a task carried out during the tenure of the current parish priest, Father Teófilo Redes Britez.