Book tickets at the best rates!

Mission of Caroni
Ciudad Guayana and surrounding
Architecture,  Temples, Churches
Architecture, 
Temples, Churches

In the XVII-XVIII centuries, religious orders of the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Jesuits, and the Capuchins founded more than 300 cities on the territory of modern Venezuela. Some of them vanished from the face of the earth, others were destroyed by the liberation war, but some became large prosperous cities where the monks of the most numerous order, the Capuchins, settled. They began their mission and construction of temples in the city of Ciudad Guayana in 1692. In 1817, during the War of Independence, several Capuchin missionaries were sacrificed; the rest left the territory themselves.

After the monks left this city, their shrines disappeared without a trace. The only surviving ruins are the Mission of Caroni. The building of the former temple, built of stone and brick in 1724, was rectangular and had a spacious hall. This is evidenced by the walls and the only chapel that have survived to this day. The sidewalls are decorated with arches and semi-columns, which were never destined to become the entrances to the side chapels. The missionaries first built the main building and then added chapels to it. Only one of them was erected at the back of the temple. On its walls, you can still see the remains of a fresco depicting the sky, the sun, and the moon, silhouettes of angels, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, and Francis of Assisi.

The only entrance is made in the form of an arch, which was so strong that it withstood all the hurricanes that were destroying the temple for 150 years. Unfortunately, the shrine's tiled roof has not survived. The only thing that can be learned about it, thanks to the marks left on the back wall, that it was double-sided and had a wooden base. Today, the ceiling of the sacred monastery of missionaries is the vault of heaven, and its silence is broken only by a few trees that have decided to settle down in the temple. The atmosphere of peace and tranquility that prevails in this place invites you to go inside, take a lotus position, and think about the secrets of the universe.

Address: Ruinas del Caroni, Via Caruachi

Published by

Praskovia Ko

All content and media files are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Rating based on 0 reviews
Favoured:
0
Already
6 images
of the Mission of Caroni
on 7toucans
See on the map

Book and buy tickets at the best rates!

Best hotels in Ciudad Guayana!

We use cookies to improve our website and your experience when using it. Cookies used for the essential operation of this site have already been set.To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, see our privacy policy including cookie use

 I accept cookies from this site.