After 3 Fires Destroyed It, A Church In Chile Faces A New Challenge: Reinventing Itself
VALPARAÍSO, Chile — The history of San Francisco Church in Valparaíso is so intertwined with the Chilean port city that when a fire burned down the building in 2013, one neighbor felt like she was losing a friend.
The city owes its nickname “Pancho” to the church (men named “Francisco” are often called “Pancho” in Latin America). Built in 1845 on a hill by the Franciscan order, the church served as a beacon for sailors who would say “Pancho a la vista” or “Pancho in sight,” when approaching the port city.
Three fires have destroyed the church since 1983, and the faithful and city officials have rallied to rebuild it. It most recently reopened in 2024, following a three-year reconstruction that required $7.7 million in funding from the regional government.
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But now, with fewer faithful attending services and no ongoing funding from the municipality, the church faces a new challenge: reinventing itself.
Like many historical religious sites around the world, the church struggles to secure funds to sustain its operations.
“The challenge is to manage the place,” said Friar Cristian Eichin, who is in charge of the church and the adjacent convent. He and another friar live in the convent.
“We require professional management,” he said. He’s looking for funds to install cameras. Since March, the temple has suffered three robberies. Eichin said people with drug addictions entered the place. They took some flower vases and the donation box.
As part of the reconstruction, the government requested that a non-profit organization be established that would help raise money for the church’s maintenance. Friends of the temple founded the San Francisco del Barón Church Corporation, which organizes flea markets. Proceeds from sales are used to maintain the site.
The corporation also organizes concerts, where attendees are asked to make a donation. “It has established links with other organizations to use the space for exhibitions, talks, meetings and courses,” said Eichin.
Everyone in the corporation is a volunteer. Its president, retiree Milagros Aguirre, spearheaded the reconstruction effort after the 2013 fire.
“The Franciscans said, ‘We're leaving’. I said, ‘You can't leave.’ That's when the effort to secure funds began,” said Aguirre.
Through her former job at the Ministry of Public Works, she learned how to apply for funding, and the corporation has built a sense of community. She remembers that the day of the dedication ceremony in May 2024 was also her birthday, and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her after Mass. But at 83, she feels it’s time to leave the corporation.
Like other churches in the country, San Francisco has experienced a decline in worship attendance. In the 1990s, there were about 20 friars living there. Around 250 people attended the Sunday Mass at noon and another 200 at 10 a.m., according to Eichin.
Today, there is only one Sunday Mass, at 11 a.m., which draws about 150 people. Eichin attributes the decreasing number of faithful to the country's secularization process, fewer religious activities, and an aging population with a diminishing number of young people. Despite this decline, he said San Francisco has a higher participation rate compared to other parishes in Valparaíso.
“The reason more people come here than to other churches is because of the affection the people of Valparaíso have for San Francisco,” he said.
Initially built in the neoclassical style, the church was remodeled with neo-Baroque elements under the work of Milanese architect and Franciscan priest Edoardo Provasoli in 1890. He reconstructed the tower and the façade, characterized by their exposed bricks. Due to its volume, height and location on a steep slope, the tower acquired a unique status in the city and from the sea.
Respecting the church’s and community’s history motivated the reconstruction effort, said Martin Schmidt, the architect in charge of the project, during the church’s opening ceremony.
“Tearing down the old brick façade and designing a new church would have been faster, easier and cheaper. However, age and respect for what was there prevailed,” he said.
The same respect for tradition is what has given the hill its identity with the temple, said Eichin. The longstanding sense of community, fostered by the remaining friars and now the volunteers of the San Francisco del Barón Church Corporation, also helps.
“The Franciscan brothers are close to the community. They bring people together,” said Francisca Leyton, a neighbor of the church.
You can read this story in Spanish here.
Graciela Ibáñez is a journalist with a Master of Arts from Columbia Journalism School, where she graduated in 2008. She works as a professor of journalism at Universidad Gabriela Mistral and at Universidad Viña del Mar in Chile. She covers Chile for foreign media outlets, including TRT World and Americas Quarterly. She worked as a reporter for Dow Jones Newswires in Santiago and for the Financial Times Group in New York City. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Viña del Mar.