San Marcos - Diafragma AudioVisuales

The structure arrived in Arica in 1875; the French technicians in charge of assembling it finished the work the following year. The current neoclassical-style church was erected in the same place as the one that was destroyed by the 1868 earthquake, taking advantage of the stone steps and foundations of the latter.

The fundamental structure is made of iron; of this material are the beams and pillars that are joined in pointed arches, and the laminated plates attached to each other by a system of assemblies and bolts. The church has three naves -the tallest central one- and presents an asymmetric façade: on one side is the transverse projection of the baptistery and on the other the tower with an octagonal base, with ogive-shaped windows. The colored stained glass windows, the way the tower rises to the sky, and the simplicity of the construction, give it great beauty, which is enhanced by the surrounding landscape that is dominated from it: the square, the Morro, the port and the sea.