Chile (Central Region - Santiago de Chile)

Iglesia San Francisco and Museo Colonial

Looking west from Cerro Santa Lucía you can’t miss the Iglesia San Francisco, highly conspicuous with its towering red walls jutting out into the street. This is the oldest building in Santiago, erected between 1586 and 1628 and the survivor of three great earthquakes. Take a look inside at the Virgen del Socorro, a small polychrome carving (rather lost in the vast main altar) brought to Chile on the saddle of Pedro de Valdivia in 1540 and credited with guiding him on his way, as well as fending off Indian attackers by throwing sand in their eyes.
The monastery attached to the church houses the Museo Colonial (Tues-Sat 10am-1pm & 3-6pm, Sun 10am-1pm; CH$500), where you’ll find a highly evocative collection of paintings, sculpture, furniture and other objects dating from the colonial period, most of it religious. The most eye-catching pieces include the gigantic painting of the genealogical tree of the Franciscan Order consisting of 644 miniature portraits; the Cristo Chilote (a small wooden image of Christ on the cross, carved in Chiloé in 1780, bearing unmistakably South American features); and, squeezed into the Gran Sala, a collection of 54 paintings depicting the life and miracles of St Francis of Assisi, quite overwhelming in their sheer size and number.