Church Construction

While we´ve been exploring the churches of Chiloé, I´ve been paying a lot of attention to their unique construction. We´ve had some good opportunities for seeing how they were made. For those of you who may likewise be interested, I´ve included some pictures of what I saw.
--Ryan

Here is a model that we saw of the church in Quinchao, which in real life was being reconstructed. The outside structure is built kind of like a barn, with the steeple and facade tacked on the front.

Here is a typical version of what the churches look like on the inside, with a semi-cylindrical-roofed naive supported by columns, and simple aisles on either side. Many of the beams in the churches are fitted together with joints that don´t require nails, like these floor beams that were exposed inside the church in Chonchi.The weight of the churches are supported by the interior columns and the external beam buttresses. The corners of the buildings, the floor beams, and the column supports are all supported on the ground by large, rounded field stones that rest on the bare earth. It looks like they never excavated into the ground, they just rolled these stones where they needed them and built from there.This is another picture of the floor in Chonchi, showing the floor beams supported by field stones sitting on the ground.This column and stone are from the oldest church in Achao, built in 1730. This was the only example where the support stones were visible on the inside. Here, the supporting column is locked into a square-shaped hole that was carved into the top of the rock (of course, we can´t see that).Everything in these churches is wood, even the statues and all the detailing on the alters. Each tiny blue and white and gold detail in this photo is a tiny piece of carved wood, all fitted together like a three-dimensional puzzle.This photo is inside the church in Chonchi, again, which we saw mid-way through reconstruction. They were using tree trunks to take the weight off the columns, so they could replace them. The third column in the picture has its wood-paneled exterior off, and underneath it is just a tree trunk, too.Here is the church in Aldachildo, on the Isla Quinchao. They had completely removed the steeple and facade in the process of reconstruction. While the roofs of the churches are peaked, the ceilings inside over the naive are semi-cylindrical, like the hull of a ship.We took these pictures from the platform in the front of the churches, under the steeple, from where they ring the bell. Here is a picture showing how the ceiling is built into the barn-like roof.Interestingly, these ship-like ceilings were actually built with the same skills and technology that they used to build the ships of Chiloé. They look like hulls built inside-out and put on upside-down. In this picture, taken in Nercón where we were able to climb around up inside the roof, the ´hull´ is built with small wooden nails instead of iron. In the same church, we were able to closely inspect the famous all-wood construction in the roof. Here are a few pictures. In the first picture, the smaller beams are locked into carved sockets in the larger beam, using no fasteners at all to support the weight of the roof.Here you can see larger wooden pegs that hold the ceiling to the rest of the roof.This is up above, just below the wood-shingled roof. Again, see the wooden pegs holding the roof beams.In a couple of churches, when we were the only ones there, we were able to climb up into the steeples. These pictures are from Isla Quehui. The symmetrical structure of the steeples was so beautiful, with all of the interlocking beams. These beams are all fitted together using carved sockets, so most of the steeple uses no fasteners to hold it up. Amazing.Naomi climbed up into the top of the steeple to look out at the ocean. There were five tall ladders like this to get up, all set on rickety little platforms of unnailed planks. In both pictures, you can see the rope used to ring the bell. Naomi wouldn´t let me ring it.