Jesuit Churches of San José and San Javier
Changuillo and El Ingenio, Nazca, Peru

From their arrival in Peru in 1568 to their expulsion in 1767, the Jesuits managed large land holdings and abundant agricultural production, and in the process accumulated significant wealth. This prosperity was reflected in the churches and missions constructed throughout the southern coastal region of Peru. Completed in the 1740s, the surviving façades of the churches of San José and San Javier represent some of the most outstanding examples of baroque architecture in the region.

The World Monument Fund, a nonprofit devoted to preserving historic places and structures, released its bi-annual list of the world’s most endangered sites. Among them are tourist meccas like Machu Picchu, as well as little-known places like the desert castles of ancient Khorezm in Uzbekistan. The 2010 Watch List, released on October 6, 2009, includes 93 sites in 47 countries that the group says is being threatened by neglect, overdevelopment or mass tourism.
 

 

The Jesuits, II: Cultures Sciences and the Arts by John W. O'Malley (Editor), Gauvin Alexander Bailey (Editor), Steven J. Harris (Editor) Recent years have seen scholars in a wide range of disciplines re-evaluate the history of the Society of Jesus. In 1997, a group of scholars convened a major international conference to discuss the world of the Jesuits between 1540 and 1773 (the year of its suppression by papal edict). This meeting led to the creation of the first volume in this series, The Jesuits, which examined the worldwide Jesuit undertaking in such fields as music, art, architecture, devotional writing, mathematics, physics, astronomy, natural history, public performance, and education, with special attention to the Jesuits' interaction with non-European cultures. "At San Xavier located in the Nazca valley, the single-nave church and L-shaped hacienda house front are separated by an open passageway that permits the church to be appreciated as an almost free-standing monument dominating the western end of the plaza. The arrangement recalls that of the hacienda of San José at Chincha (l754), but the traditional orientation of the church is reversed. so that the facade faces east."