With the aim of converting the native Guaraní population, the Jesuits established 30 missions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in an area of South America that now includes parts of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. One of these missions, São Nicolau, is located in the region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, first colonized in 1626. (...)
With the aim of converting the native Guaraní population, the Jesuits established 30 missions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in an area of South America that now includes parts of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. One of these missions, São Nicolau, is located in the region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, first colonized in 1626. The mission of São Nicolau was established in 1687, but due to attacks by invaders coming in search of natives to enslave, its population soon left and moved to the western side of the Uruguay River. By 1731 the settlement was repopulated and became recognized as the center for production of baroque-style, polychromatic wood sacred images. São Nicolau thrived as a center for art, architecture and music until 1756 when the Guarani Wars broke out as a reaction to the signing of the Treaty of Madrid, a Spanish-Portuguese border treaty. The complete abandonment of the Brazilian missions started in 1768 when the Jesuit Order was expelled from South America.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a mansion called Casarão Silva was built with stones taken from older buildings in the settlement, but it too was left in ruins later in the century. In 1970, São Nicolau was recognized as an area of National Patrimony because of the remains of the town hall, church, rectory, and other early structures. During the 1980s archaeological excavations were undertaken; however, the materials uncovered were left exposed to the elements and suffered rapid deterioration, putting some structures in danger of total collapse.
