Historic Buenos Aires basilica that was rebuilt 3 times reopens

After a long process that included restoration and enhancement, the Basilica of San Francisco will reopen its doors on September 17 at 6:00 p.m. with a Mass presided over by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Mons. Jorge Garcia Cuerva.

The historic Buenos Aires temple, located at Alsina 380, in the Monserrat neighborhood, will return to its activity after arduous restoration work on the building, the atrium, the San Roque chapel and the museum. However, it is not the first but the third time that the facilities must undergo repairs and restoration work.

The first constructions

Although the Friars Minor carried out their first construction in 1583, shortly after the second founding of Buenos Aires, it was a precarious building. The second construction, where the San Roque chapel is located today, was carried out in 1604, and the definitive temple – and considerably larger than the previous ones – was built between the years 1731 and 1754 and was based on a project by the Jesuit Andrés Blanqui, one of the most influential architects of the colonial era.

At 78 meters long by 11.7 meters wide and 17.7 meters high, it became the longest temple with a single nave in Buenos Aires.

A history of closures and reopenings

The temple opened for worship on March 25, 1754, under the guard of Father Bernardo de Molina, but in 1770 it was closed due to a crack in its structure.

On September 28, 1783, the Bishop of Buenos Aires, Mons. Sebastián Malvar y Pinto, consecrated the temple, which remained open until 1807, when the façade with its towers collapsed. The reconstruction works finished around 1815.

On March 20, 1868, Pope Pius IX granted the temple to be added to the privileges of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome.

But the renovations continued: the current façade is the product of a remodeling carried out between 1907 and 1911 by the architect Ernesto Sackmann, with a baroque style of German origin.

In 1942 and by decree of the Executive Branch of the Nation, the Basilica of San Francisco was declared a national historic monument.

On June 16, 1955, after the bombing of Plaza de Mayo, Peronist groups attacked Catholic temples for attributing responsibility for the coup d’état to the Church. In this context, the Basilica of San Francisco suffered significant losses of its artistic and documentary heritage.

The reconstruction and reform of the basilica began in the 1960s, and it was reopened for worship on October 1, 1967.

The last stage of restoration began in 2017, and included the enhancement of the exterior façade, as well as the cleaning of the imagery, tasks supervised by the Undersecretary of Public Works and the National Commission of Monuments, Places and Historical Assets.

Historical and artistic treasures

The current façade of the basilica dates from 1911 and was designed by the Austrian architect Ernesto Sackmann. In it you can see Saint Francis of Assisi, and three prominent members of the third Franciscan order: Giotto, Dante Alighieri and Christopher Columbus, on their knees.

It also has two towers decorated with cherubs in small domes around which are the statues of Fray Marchena, Bacon, and Popes Sixtus V, Gregory IX and Leo XIII.

Inside the temple, behind the main altar, there is a large 20th century tapestry with Franciscan motifs, made by Horacio Butler and inaugurated in 1972, which replaces the old colonial altar burned in 1955.

In the San Roque chapel adjacent to the basilica, inaugurated in 1756 and restored after the fire of 1955, there are images from the 18th century, and a few from the 19th century.

In the Historical Library of the Basilica San Francisco in Buenos Aires, the oldest book in the collection dates back to 1513. It also has a space dedicated to the Franciscan Museum Mons. Fray José María Bottaro.

In the crypt, apart from Franciscan religious, some illustrious figures are buried.

In 2007, while restoration work was being carried out, a “time capsule” was discovered inside the sculpture by Dante Alighieri: a can with a page from the newspaper La Prensa from 1908, a page from the newspaper of Innsbruck, a city birthplace of the author of the sculptures, coins and an envelope with the legend “I greet whoever finds these writings.”

“An invitation to open the doors to Christ”

When calling for the reopening Mass, the Provincial of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), Fray Emilio Andrada, told AICA that the recovery of the temple “is part of the beginning of the history of our Order”, when Saint Francis “heard the voice of the Lord, from the crucifix of San Damiano: ‘Francis, go and repair my Church which, as you see, threatens ruin'”.

“This long-awaited moment is an invitation to open the doors to Christ, represented in each of the people who will pass by to visit the Blessed Sacrament, to listen to the Word and receive the Eucharist before beginning their daily work, to pray and give thanks at the end of the day. I hope so, more and more, and for a long time,” she longed.