The church of the Benedictine Monastery of the Santísima Trinidad de las Condes Previous proposals

Abstract

Any attempt to fully understand a work of architecture will always be an unfinished enterprise. This article, with its origins in a doctoral dissertation in development, aims to advance in the knowledge of a paradigmatic work in patrimonial Chilean architecture: the church of the Benedictine Monastery of the Santísima Trinidad de Las Condes (1962-1964), the first modern work to be declared national monument in Chile (1981). By way of genealogical record, the article proposes a review of the project departing from a critical assessment of its precedents. First, we present a series of proposals developed in Chile, originated at the heart of the Instituto de Arquitectura de Valparaíso. In this regard, along with the projects developed for the monastery by Jaime Bellalta (1953-1954), we include the proposals led by Alberto Cruz: the Capilla de Pajaritos (1952) and the studies for the monastery’s church (1960). Complementarily, the so far unknown link between the monastery and the church of San Pedro Mártir of the Spanish architect Miguel Fisac in the Dominican seminary of Alcobendas in Madrid (1955-1960) will also be presented, thus contributing new elements to its historiography, traditionally linked to the Corbusian tradition. Finally, on the basis of the previous study, focusing on the architectural understanding of the liturgical requirements, three central aspects are considered for the case studied. These aspects continue to apply fully to contemporary sacred architecture, viz. “light as generator of the form,” the “dramatization of the liturgical act” and architecture as a “symbolic machine.”

Key words: church of the Las Condes Monastery, sacred modern architecture, liturgical space, light.