São Miguel das Missões Ruins, São Miguel das Missões, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
© robertharding/Shutterstock
A mission abandoned
Though its architecture is distinctively European, a peek at palm trees through this ruin's outer door hints at its wild New World setting. São Miguel das Missões was one of several missions established by the Jesuit order in the late 1600s near the triple frontier of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. The missions' mission? To 'civilize' the local Guaraní people by bringing them into planned Catholic communities—an effort that only lasted until Spain expelled the order from the Americas in 1767. The missions' melding of Catholicism with Indigenous ways shaped the lasting culture of the region, with UNESCO recognizing several of the ruins (including São Miguel) as World Heritage Sites.
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