The Church and expansión of gothic revival in Latin America:

a proposal from the geography of religion.

Abstract

The construction of churches, temples and cathedrals in the neo-Gothic style in Latin America was a constant during the final quarter of the 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century. The construction of these temples, beyond their architecture, became part of a solution serving the political and social needs of the Church. Through this idea we can understand these buildings as being symbols of the balance, sometimes conflicting, sometimes fully collaborative, between the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the national governments which arose at that historical moment.  This paper is an analysis which seeks to understand how the Catholic Church has taken this style and used it, directly or indirectly, as an additional element in a complex policy of integrating itself into societies of the then-new (19th century) Latin American countries. To understand this phenomenon, we use the geographical concept of scale as the modulating element.  It allows us to structure the role of the Church on the continent in the late19th century, using the neo-Gothic architectural style as a pretext through three scales attached to geographical and political notions: the nation or the state, the territory, and the local.  This analysis will also allow us to offer an outline of the spatial impact of the Catholic Church throughout the continent in the late 19th century.