Qualla: Church of La Compañía, Quito

Church of La Compañía, Quito: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit putneymark, CC BY-SA 2.0. A traveling Jesuit named Father Bernardo Recio called it "Golden Ember." Others have compared it to the Temple of Solomon. Walk through the doors of the Church of La Compania in Quito's historic center and the reason becomes obvious in a single breath: every surface of the interior - altarpieces, pillars, vaults, cornices - is sheathed in 23-carat gold leaf over carved cedar, glowing against a deep red ground. The effect is not decoration. It is immersion. The church is less a building than an engineering achievement in light.

Image: putneymark | CC BY-SA 2.0

Church of La Compañía, Quito: One Hundred Sixty Years

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Napoleon Vier at Dutch Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Jesuits arrived in Quito on July 19, 1586, hoping to establish a church, a college, and a monastery. Most of the prime land had already been claimed by the Franciscans, Mercedarians, Augustinians, and Dominicans. They settled for a plot south of the cathedral and began acquir...

Image: Napoleon Vier at Dutch Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Church of La Compañía, Quito: The Facade in Stone

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0. The exterior facade is carved entirely from Ecuadorian andesite - volcanic stone quarried from El Panecillo hill and from the Jesuits' own Hacienda de Yurac. Work began in 1722 under Father Leonardo Deubler, was suspended in 1725, and resumed in 1760 under Father Venancio Gandolf...

Image: Cayambe | CC BY-SA 3.0

Church of La Compañía, Quito: Gold Over Red

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0. The interior is where the church becomes extraordinary. The main altarpiece was begun as stone and brick, but in 1735 the design changed to carved cedar wood following the guidelines of Jesuit brother Jorge Vinterer. The carving alone took ten years, from 1735 to 1745. Then, in J...

Image: Diego Delso | CC BY-SA 4.0

Church of La Compañía, Quito: The Pulpit and the Paintings

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lumen roma, CC BY 3.0. The pulpit on the north side carries 250 small cherubim faces alongside the four Evangelists and the Jesuit saints. The ceiling of the main dome, ten meters in diameter, bears images of twelve angels, then twelve Cardinals of the Society of Jesus, then images of the first Archbis...

Image: Lumen roma | CC BY 3.0

Church of La Compañía, Quito: A Saint, a Miracle, and Bells

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two treasures survived the 1767 expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish Empire, when many of La Compania's riches were auctioned or shipped to Spain. The first is the remains of Santa Mariana de Jesus, the young Quitoan woman who died at 26 in 1645 after offering her life for t...

Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 3.0