Iglesia de San Francisco, Santiago de Chile Iglesia de San Francisco, Santiago de Chile The San Francisco Church (Spanish: "Iglesia de San Francisco") is a Franciscan church on Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, in the downtown of Santiago de Chile. The church, along with the adjacent convent, is one of the oldest colonial-era building in the country. The church was consecrated in 1622. The bell tower was destroyed by an earthquake in 1647, while the rest of the building successfully resisted it. In 1730 another earthquake badly damaged the rebuilt tower, which was demolished in 1751. The current bell tower is of Victorian architecture and was constructed
Bernardo Vieira de Melo captain-general on November 17, 1691. On January 8, 1695, he was appointed Captain-General of Rio Grande do Norte, and on September 25, 1709 Sergeant Major of the Third of Palmares, in which position he took an active part in War of the peddlers. In November 1710, Vieira was the first to call for the creation of a Republic in Brazil, an act for which he was arrested in Recife in 1712 and shipped to Lisbon with his son, André. He died in the Limoeiro prison in 1718. Bernardo Vieira de Melo Bernardo Vieira de Melo was the first Governor of