RP
The town of Dulce Nombre de Jesús de Petare was founded in 1621 on a small hill bordered by El Oro creek and Caurimare and Guaire rivers, in the easternmost section of the valley of Caracas. The twenty-six blocks were developed with an orthogonal layout of its streets, which ended in perpendicular façades. The church, attributed to Father Gabriel de Mendoza, was founded in 1691 facing the square (today Plaza Sucre). In 1815 a bell tower is added to the initially single-nave church, and twenty years later the second body was finished. Completed by 1858, it displayed three bodies or naves on its main façade, with arcades separated by brick pillars, framing the access-es topped by pediments. Each doorway has a balcony. The current tower (1858) was built by Father Jacinto Made-laine and has four bodies covered by a dome. Inside, the temple has three naves, with the central one flanked by semicircular arches resting on cylindrical Tuscan columns. Inside it has the paintings La adoración de los Magos y El milagro del Cristo de la salud (Tito Salas, 1887-1974), as well as altarpieces, painting and metalwork that give it great artistic and architectural value. The church retains its original features intact, reinforced by the authentic-ity of the morphology and construction elements of the houses in downtown Petare.
DDN
PB
NE-72