they are located, their communities, traditions, and worldview. This is clearly reflected in the annual patron saint festivities that take place in these areas, which have been held since colonial times and continue to the present day. During these festivities, the former inhabitants and their descendants return to their villages, motivated by devotion to their patron saints, performing a series of rites and customs to request abundance, well-being, health, and success in agricultural production and livestock reproduction ⁴ . These festivities show the permanence and coexistence of elements of Catholicism with those from indigenous religiousness, in connection with the ancestral wisdom linked to the natural environment. Just like the group of more than 150 churches that are part of the so- called Chiloé School of Religious Wooden Architecture ⁵ , the churches of the altiplano possess a diversity of attributes that cannot be seen in isolation, since their richness lies precisely in the interrelation between their constructive, architectural, cultural, social and historical character- istics and their place in the territory in which they are located. The notion of cultural landscape offers an interesting perspective for the integrated management of this group of temples, as it emphasizes the interaction between human work and nature, reflecting ancestral knowledge for its sustainable use and the spiritual relationship that exists with it ⁶ . The incorporation of this protection category in the proposed update of the heritage legislation provides a historic opportunity to do so. ! Bárbara Ossa González She holds a degree in History from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and a Master's degree in Cultural Heritage Studies from the University College London. She works at the Department of Heritage Studies and Education at the Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage. Daniela Serra Anguita She is a historian from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She holds a Master's degree and PhD in History from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She is the Head of the Department of Heritage Studies and Education at the Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage.
2 Francisco Pizarro, “Identity and miscegenation in Andean Baroque art. The iconography,” in Baroque. Acts Do II International Congress (Porto: Department of Sciences and Techniques of Heritage; Faculty of Letters from the University of Porto, 2001):197-214. 3 Unesco, Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (Paris, 1972). In this way, the temples can be seen as the material representation of a complex network of existing links: either between different churches or between them and their natural environment, the territory in which Decades later, numerous churches from this group were declared National Monuments by the Chilean State. For example, in the 2015 declaration of seven of them, it is interesting to note that, among the values associated with them, those of a symbolic and social nature appear alongside their material attributes. Thus, together with the architectural and stylistic elements, these temples also serve as axes of territorial orga- nization, both for evangelization and Christian worship, as well as for the socio-political articulation of the local population. These material signs remain in a landscape in which nature still prevails over human traces. In this sense, the validity of these temples as active ceremonial centers, depositories of the communities' faith, and spaces where community traditions are kept alive through traditional administration are highlighted. This is mainly characterized by the positions of “fabriquero” - responsi- ble for the temple's conservation - and “mayordomo” -in charge of the organization of the patron saint festivities. reflected together with European imagery, demonstrating the religious and cultural syncretism of the mestizo Andean baroque ² . An example of this is the coexistence on their facades of decorative plant and animal elements typical of the Andean world -such as vizcachas, birds, and flowers-, with the royal emblems of the Spanish crown. Since 1988, this group called “Churches of the Altiplano” has been part of UNESCO's Tentative List, which includes properties that the State considers to be of potential Outstanding Universal Value, a prerequisite for their nomination as a World Heritage Site. Its inscription as a group is based on its constructive, material, and architectural similarities, generally characterized by having a single nave, an atrium that houses the religious festivities, a tower, and the ornamentation of its facades. This is coherent with the definition that the same Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Unesco (1972) makes for the cultural heritage in Article 1, which includes “groups of buildings, isolated or reunited, whose architecture, unity and integration in the landscape give them an exceptional universal value” ³ .
Andean Temple: A Treasure of Humanity Category By: Magdalena Pereira
4 Magdalena Pereira y Javiera Maino, Andean Churches of Arica and Parinacota :173. 5 Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage, Inventory Study. Churches of the Chiloé Archipelago belonging to the Chiloé School of Religious Wooden Architecture (Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, 2019). 6 Unesco, Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (París, 2008): 25. Perpetuated through the constant movement of people and objects throughout the centuries; first, from the remote times of the Tiwanaku empire (VI and XI); then, during the Inca expansion (XV-XVI) and, finally, in the period corresponding to the Spanish Empire (XVI-XIX). Later, expanded and resurfaced as branches of the Qhapac Ñan (Inca Trail)
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