La Compania, Quito

 The Jesuits came to Quito at the end of the 16th century. The first primitive church was destroyed and work began on the present building in 1605. It took over 80 years. Then the present facade was started in 1722 by a German friar Leonard Deubler. After another earthquake  it was finished by Vernancio Gandolfi an Italian from Mantua.  Not surprisingly it shows Spanish and Italian character in its decoration.There are no towers. Even so there is a legend that King Philip V (a manic depressive) used to worry so much about the cost that he would look out from the top tower of his Escorial Palace near Madrid and expect to see its 

It has been said that La Compania is a blend of the two great Roman churches - the Gesu and Sant Ignazio. Kelemen in Baroque and Rococo in Latin America (Dover 1967) is not very convinced. Clearly La Compania is more intimate than either of the massive grandiose Roman churches, although the basic floor plan and liturgical use might be the  same.

The interior is of stone with a barrel nave vault of pumice and brick and domes with lanterns over the side aisles, partitioned into separate  Baroque style chapels. 

The little video below allows us to get the mood of the outside and a golden impression of the inside with monumnetal 18th century altars.

We shall return one day soon to look at San Francisco Church in Quite with famous Renaissance facade and sumptuous Baroque interior.

By Alfredo Chaves - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1627076

By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42184396

By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42184404