In the area bordering the present-day states of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, in the middle of jungles criss-crossed by huge rivers, the Jesuit brothers founded the "reductions" , settlements whose ruins remain as an artistic and spiritual testimony to their missionary fervour. In their evangelistic enthusiasm and the determination to transmit the word of God to the most hidden corners of the New Continent, they had to deal with and overcome several dangers and setbacks, in a story of often epic proportions. After the first province created in Paraguay, from 1609 onwards, the Company of Jesus founded about sixty reductions that were set up in territories belonging to the present-day states of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil.
The cultural heritage of the Jesuit reductions is not merely an extremely important architectural record of the implementation and development of architecture and urban planning in the Baroque period, inspired by the 16th century "ideal cities", but also a crucial historical legacy as a model of religious, social, educational and economic organisation. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits from the dominions of the Spanish Crown in 1767, and after the suppression of the Company of Jesus by the Vatican in 1773, many of the reductions were abandoned. This abandonment was further accentuated during frontier wars of 1818, which led to the fatal devastation and final abandonment of the reductions, which were subsequently swalled up by the tropical jungle. The work of restoration, recovery and enhancement has been underway on a continuous basis for several decades, consolidating many of the remains of the monumental ensembles that have survived until our day.
The Jesuit reduction of St. Ignacio Miní is one of the most important: at its time of maximum splendour, in the middle of the 18th century, it was home to over three thousand inhabitants and the centre of intense religious, cultural and artisanal life. Despite also suffering the devastation provoked by armed conflicts and abandonment, San Ignacio Miní still conserves important traces that allow a full virtual reconstruction of the reduction to be carried out, with the support of historical studies and the documentation existing in various archives. Of special interest are its urban layout, as a paradigm of regular, ordered urban planning and the sculpted works on the doors of its monumental church, which bear witness to local adaptations, with distinctive indigenous features, of the stylistic guidelines of European baroque art. San Ignacio Miní is located in the province of Misiones, about sixty kilometres from the capital of the province, Posadas. It was added to the World Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO in 1984 and is currently equipped with an interesting Interpretive Centre that provides information on the history and culture of the Jesuit missions.
