Iglesia de San Francisco, La Serena, Colonial Catholic church in La Serena, Chile.

The Iglesia de San Francisco is a stone structure with a main facade displaying four decorated pilasters, carved relief panels, and three Renaissance-style entrance doors. An adjacent museum of religious art completes the religious complex on this site.

The Franciscan order arrived in La Serena in 1563; Fray Francisco Medina, Juan Carbero and Francisco Román began the present church in 1590 with limestone from Peñuelas Alto and wood from the Fray Jorge forest. It was inaugurated on 25 December 1627. Pirates under Bartholomew Sharp burned much of the city in 1680 but not this church. Earthquakes in 1730 and 1796 damaged the roof and toppled part of the tower.

The church is dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Buena Esperanza, its title at the 1627 inauguration. The Franciscan order returned part of the cloister in 1858, and the sacristy now holds a museum of religious art with sacred objects. The 1899 facade added three symmetrical doors.

The church sits at a street corner in central La Serena, making it straightforward to locate and visit. The adjacent museum operates on separate hours, so plan accordingly if you wish to see both spaces.

In 1680 the English corsair Bartholomew Sharp sacked most of La Serena, yet this church was the one temple his men did not set on fire. The cloister later held the short-lived Casa de Moneda de Coquimbo, a mint opened in 1827.