Santo Angelo Attractions

Cathedral

The town's principal sight is the Cathedral, a copy of the church of São Miguel das Missões. It has a wooden statue of the Dead Christ recovered from one of the fortified villages (reduáões; Spanish reducciones) in which the Indians lived under the eye of the Jesuits) of São Miguel.

Centro de Cultura

Missioneira

The Centro de Cultura Missioneira is a historical museum with exhibits from the Sete Povos das Missões, the seven Jesuit mission stations.

195km/121mi west of Santo Angelo, on the frontier with Argentina, is São Borja (pop. 70,000), home town of President Getúlio Vargas. The Municipal Museum displays works of art from the Guaraní villages. Also open to visitors is President Vargas's old house, with his library, furniture and personal possessions. 5km/3mi away, on the other bank of the Rio Uruguai, is the Argentinian town of San Tomé. Can be reached by boat.

80km/50mi west of Santo Angelo is San Luiz Gonzaga (pop. 60,000). The town's principal feature of interest is the pilgrimage church of Caaró, in which two Jesuit saints, Roque Gonzales and Afonso Rodrigues, founders of the "Guaraní Republic" (so called from the Guaraní Indians whom the Jesuits settled in the mission area in the 17th century), are venerated.

São João Batista

30km/19mi south-west of Santo Angelo on BR 285 are the remains of the mission of São João Batista. On one of the walls is a relief portrait of the Jesuit Anton Sepp.

Of the redução of São Lourenáo, 65km/40mi south-west of Santo Angelo, there remain only the ruins of the church (1626). The picture is the same at the first of the seven mission stations, São Nicolau, 125km/78mi west of Santo Angelo.