Church of the Society of Jesus

The Church of the Society of Jesus in Quito, a living example of art and faith of the Ecuadorian people, maximum expression of the baroque style in Ecuador, was built from 1605 to 1765. Foreign Jesuit priests, among them Marcos Guerra, Jorge Vinterer, Leonardo Deubler, Venancio Gandolfi and Hernando de la Cruz, skilled in the different arts and crafts: architecture, carving, sculpture and painting, were the ones who gave shape and singular style to the Jesuit temple. To the brush of Hernando de La Cruz are attributed the two large original canvases of Hell and the Last Judgment, works executed in 1620, whose facsimiles today as yesterday are located at the north and south ends of the narthex of the church. Colonial Quito also contributed with great artists who covered the church with gold and magnificent paintings, artists such as Nicolás Xavier Goribar, Bernardo de Legarda, Antonio Salas, and the unique anonymous workmanship of those who gave name to the Quito School and left their mark on the exuberant decoration of the temple.