Five hours southwest of Iguacu, we reached San Ignacio, a small town with two claims to fame - the house of Argentine poet and novelist Quiroga and the ruins of the largest and best-known of the 17th century Jesuit missions (“reducciones”) to the native Guarani people.
First, Quiroga’s house. A little way out of town (in fact, a long way out of town when Quiroga actually lived there in the early 1900’s), we found a secluded property with two houses. One house was a replica of Quiroga’s first house on the site, built for a biographical movie, while the second was his original second house. Plenty of memorabilia which gave some insights into Quiroga’s character. And a very tranquil and inspirational setting. For all that, it seems that Quiroga was quite a tortured individual.
On to the Jesuit mission of San Ignacio Mini. This is an enormous complex of ruins that, in its prime, was inhabited by almost 5,000 Guarani, along with a few Jesuit priests. A lot of restoration work has been done and it was easy to appreciate the scale of the place. It was just one of 30 such missions in Argentina and Paraguay. An excellent museum gave a description of how the Jesuits succeeded in building an entirely new social structure, importing some aspects of Guarani culture and using music and art, how they then managed the missions and, ultimately, even led the Guarani successfully in battle. It seems that they were multi-talented priests, and still held in high regard by the modern Guarani population long after they had been expelled from the country in the early 18th century.
After walking around the ruins in the late afternoon, we waited for darkness and a light and sound show which took place in the ruins. Everything looked great under lights and the bonus was a historical explanation by a native Guarani guide. If you have seen the movie “The Mission”, the same atmosphere was all here.
Simon
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