Ruins Of São Miguel Das Missões

Michael">St. Michael of the Missions'), also known as São Miguel Arcanjo, and by its former Spanish name Misión de San Miguel Arcángel, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the municipality of São Miguel das Missões, in the northwestern region of Rio Grande do Sul state, in southern Brazil.

Ruins of São Miguel das Missões

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	São Miguel das Missões, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Part of	Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis: San Ignacio Mini, Santa Ana, Nuestra Señora de Loreto and Santa Maria Mayor (Argentina), Ruins of Sao Miguel das Missoes (Brazil)
Criteria	Cultural: (iv)
Reference	275bis-001
Inscription	1983 (7th Session)
Extensions	1984
Coordinates	28°32′52″S 54°33′20″W / 28.54778°S 54.55556°W / -28.54778; -54.55556
Location of Ruins of São Miguel das Missões in Brazil

The São Miguel das Missões mission was built between 1735 and around 1745 as Mission San Miguel Arcángel. São Miguel das Missões was one of the many Spanish Colonial Jesuit Reductions in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. Spanish Jesuit missionaries founded the mission for Crown mandated Indian Reductions for Guaraní Indians, which had the goal of converting them to Christianity and protecting locals from the Portuguese slave traders known as the Bandeirantes.

The Treaty of Madrid in 1750 transferred sovereignty over the area from Spain to Portugal. The Spanish Jesuit missions were ordered to move to the retained Spanish territory west of the Uruguay River. The Guaraní tribes refused to comply with the order to relocate from their homelands, now deemed in Portuguese "territory", which led to the Guarani War. A joint Portuguese-Spanish army attacked and defeated the Guaraní, and the mission was destroyed.

The cathedral (Catedral Angelopolitana) built in the 1920s in nearby Santo Ângelo city, is modeled after the church at the São Miguel das Missões reduction.

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  Façade of São Miguel das Missões.
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  Interior view of the ruins of São Miguel das Missões.

 

The Spanish Colonial architecture of the ruins and the archeological site of São Miguel das Missões has been a protected part of the UNESCO Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis World Heritage Site, since 1984. The protected area covers 1,229.8 square kilometres (474.8 sq mi). A history museum is adjacent.

• The Mission (1986) — film starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, about the Jesuit Missions and the Guaraní War. The film set represented what is known of the appearance of the 18th-century São Miguel das Missões.
• Guarani War
• Jesuit Reductions
• List of Jesuit sites
• San Ignacio Miní
• Spanish missions in South America