Parinacota, Chile

Parinacota is a Chilean hamlet in Putre, Parinacota Province, Arica and Parinacota Region.

The church at Parinacota

Location

It is situated on the highlands at an elevation of 4,400 metres (14,400 ft) in Lauca National Park near the small town of Putre and had 29 inhabitants as of 2002.[1]

Church

The church was built in the 17th century in the form of a central nave with two side chapels. The walls are made of stone and clay and are supported by exterior arches of unmortared stone. The floor is brick with a central band of stone. Originally there was no choir. A choir without railing was built later-on whereas one of the most interesting frescoes of the area, the Last Judgment was destroyed. The atrium is surrounded by a clay wall on which are situated several figures made of red stone: A bishop, lilies, phalli and others. The square tower was rebuilt in 1789 and painted with white lime.

Noteworthy are the frescoes in the interior which were painted in water colors by Indians in the Andean baroque of the 17th century. The Last Judgment suggests that only women were condemned. The archangel St. Michael weighs a nude woman on a scale and there are trails to get to the purgatory, over clouds to heaven as well as stairs to the mouth of a dragon which leads to hell, where there are several torture instruments. The condemned women walk or are dragged by the hair or are ridden by demons. One of them leads the helpers of evil with a broad smile, not knowing what awaits her.

Climate

Parinacota has a tundra climate (Köppen classification ET). It has cool daily highs throughout the year due to its high elevation, but lows are very cold, and remain below freezing for the entire year. Due to its high elevation, there is high diurnal temperature variation.

Climate data for Parinacota
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 13.5
(56.3)		 13.1
(55.6)		 13.0
(55.4)		 12.7
(54.9)		 10.8
(51.4)		 9.3
(48.7)		 8.8
(47.8)		 10.2
(50.4)		 11.3
(52.3)		 13.3
(55.9)		 13.9
(57.0)		 13.9
(57.0)		 12.0
(53.6)
Daily mean °C (°F) 5.4
(41.7)		 5.4
(41.7)		 4.8
(40.6)		 3.5
(38.3)		 1.3
(34.3)		 −1.0
(30.2)		 −1.1
(30.0)		 −0.2
(31.6)		 1.8
(35.2)		 3.1
(37.6)		 4.3
(39.7)		 5.1
(41.2)		 2.7
(36.8)
Average low °C (°F) −2.7
(27.1)		 −2.2
(28.0)		 −3.4
(25.9)		 −5.7
(21.7)		 −8.2
(17.2)		 −11.2
(11.8)		 −11.0
(12.2)		 −10.5
(13.1)		 −7.6
(18.3)		 −7.1
(19.2)		 −5.3
(22.5)		 −3.7
(25.3)		 −6.5
(20.2)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 103
(4.1)		 90
(3.5)		 54
(2.1)		 7
(0.3)		 0
(0)		 2
(0.1)		 1
(0.0)		 1
(0.0)		 2
(0.1)		 2
(0.1)		 5
(0.2)		 33
(1.3)		 300
(11.8)
Source: climate-data.org
gollark: I don't trust governments to not do bad things given control of banks and stuff.
gollark: Like, I don't know, internal training sales manager.
gollark: I'm sure you could come up with much worse ones.
gollark: Those are all pretty useful jobs.
gollark: It's amazing how Trump gets away with doing bad things by just doing worse things later.

See also

References
  1. "Censo INE 2002" (zip). Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas. Retrieved 2012-07-31.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.