Catholic Doctrine Temples

As we had private transport, we took the opportunity to make a short excursion along the road from San Andres de Pisimbala to nearby Sta Rosa to see its “Catholic Doctrine Temple” as well, of course, as visiting the one in Pisimabla itself, which dominates the centre of that village. It was around 8kms – but, as the average speed on a rough Colombian road is rarely above 20kms an hour, it fully filled our time between finishing off El Tablon and having dinner in Pisimbala! To reach it continue along the road from El Tablon.

Currently we don’t have its location identified on our maps and I can confirm that it is situated at 2.582890, -76.002442. On Google it has been identified as “Sta Rosa Tierradentro” but no church of that name is inscribed! Since it is definitely NOT “Sta Rosa de Suin” which is clearly situated elsewhere, I can only assume that it is the church called “Sta Rosa de Lima o Capisisco” in the UNESCO documentation. That would seem to be confirmed by this article . The church is situated in open country but next to it are a school, community centre, sports hall etc whose exterior walls were totally painted in Colombian style with representations of Indigeno life and culture. There were only a few houses and the church/Community centre etc obviously serve a much larger hinterland of small fincas. As one visits the area of Tierradentro and San Agustin one needs to …

With a similar colonial history to the rest of Latin America (Spanish/Portuguese conquest and almost immediate establishment of Catholic missions to "convert the heathens") it seems natural that Colombia would want to recognize this aspect of its history the way Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Mexico have. In a remote southern region of Colombia there are still 7 churches remaining to group together into this TWHS.

We only visited 1, San Andres de Pisimbala, because we were already staying in San Andres to visit Tierradentro WHS and it was a 2 minute walk away from our guesthouse. I hope that it is not representative of the others because it was disappointing. Its most defining features are its thatched roof and simplistic whitewashed style. This church burnt down in 2013 and was presumably reconstructed faithfully to the original and if so there is little value to add to the already listed missions. There are no impressive artworks adorning the interior, no remains of a religious community or compound surrounding the church. Instead, beside it is a school, guesthouse and some shops. The interior was just whitewashed walls, photos of the fire and rebuilding process and the usual alter. It is possible that the other 6 churches have more to offer but I felt the significant effort required wasn't going to yield enough reward. The roads are rough and public transport is scarce and irregular so you would need private transport to reach any of the others in a reasonable time …