Church and Monastery of San Agustín

In front of you is San Agustín, a church easily overlooked amid the bustle of Guayaquil street, yet home to one of the most symbolic places of Ecuador's independence.

1A church battered by the earth

The Augustinians arrived in Quito in 1569 and settled here a few years later. The church was built from 1606 onwards, on plans inspired by those of Francisco Becerra, and the façade was completed in 1669. Earthquakes tested it again and again: after the 1868 quake the central vault collapsed, and what you see today is a “false vault” of wood, reed and stucco that imitates stone. Quito lives on restless ground, and almost all its churches share a similar story.

2The chapter house

Inside the monastery is the chapter house, built between 1741 and 1761, with carved choir stalls and a geometric coffered ceiling. There, on 16 August 1809, an assembly with representatives of Quito's neighbourhoods ratified the junta formed six days earlier. The next day its members took their oath in the cathedral.

A year later the hall received the dead: several of the patriots killed on 2 August 1810 rest in the crypt, among them Manuel Rodríguez de Quiroga and Juan de Dios Morales.

Two plaques in the hall recall both dates: the birth of the junta and the massacre.

3What to look for

• The stone doorway, with columns and reliefs mixing European and Andean motifs.
• The bell tower, about 37 metres high, which still has 17th-century bells.
• The stone cross on the corner, beside the small atrium.