San Ignacio Mini

San Ignacio Mini tickets: which one to buy

The ticket is inexpensive and covers the ruins, the interpretation centre and the evening sound and light show when it runs; guides wait at the entrance and charge a small fee per group. An audio guide is available. The mission lies in Misiones province, about 60 kilometres north of Posadas and roughly four hours south of Puerto Iguazu, which means that almost everyone arrives on a day trip from the falls. Those tours cost a moderate amount and usually pair San Ignacio with the Wanda gemstone mines, a combination driven by geography rather than sense;

the driving is long and the mission deserves more time than it gets. Buses on the Posadas to Iguazu route stop in the village, which makes independent travel cheap and easy if you are staying overnight. The sound and light show, projected onto the ruined walls after dark, is the best thing here and is ticketed separately. Tickets are valid for the whole day, so you can see the ruins in the afternoon and return for the projection after dark on one entry.

Visiting San Ignacio Mini: what to see

Jesuits founded San Ignacio Mini in 1610 in what is now Brazil, moved it twice under attack from slave-raiding bandeirantes, and settled it here in 1696. At its height about 3,000 Guarani lived and worked in the mission, which had its own workshops, cattle, printing and music; the Jesuits taught European polyphony and the Guarani built violins. The Spanish crown expelled the order in 1767, the settlement declined, and Brazilian troops burned it in 1817. The jungle swallowed the ruins until 1897.

What survives is a red sandstone town plan: a central grassy square, rows of low dwelling blocks, and the shell of a church 74 metres long designed by the Italian Jesuit Juan Brasanelli, whose facade is carved with a hybrid ornament that art historians call Guarani baroque, with local plants and faces worked into European forms. A small museum by the entrance displays wooden statues carved by Guarani craftsmen and a model of the mission as it stood in 1750.

San Ignacio Mini opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from morning to early evening, with the sound and light show after dark in the warmer months and not at all in winter or in rain. Misiones is subtropical: hot and very humid from November to March, with heavy afternoon storms, and mild from May to September, which is the comfortable season. There is almost no shade among the ruins and the red stone throws heat back at midday.

Mosquito repellent is necessary at dusk. Allow ninety minutes for the site and the museum. The village of San Ignacio has a handful of places to eat and the house where the writer Horacio Quiroga lived, a short walk away and open to visitors, which makes an easy pairing. Three more mission ruins lie within an hour's drive, at Santa Ana, Loreto and Santa Maria la Mayor, and all four are covered by a single regional ticket.