"San Ignacio" Parish
The church and organ history
G. Tonoli / G. Locatelli

The Organ

The organ that we can see in this church today was built during the decade of 1880 but a reformation was done during 1906. The original instrument, a "Giovanni Tonoli" organ had only 1 manual and a reduced pedal keyboard. Most of the pipes of the current first manual correspond to that original instrument. Then in 1906 the italian constructor Donato Sangaletti used materials provided by the House Locatelli in Italy to carry on the organ reformation: the console was changed and a second manual was added. The mechanic system that we can see today corresponds also to Locatelli House.
The facade is Venetian styled and probably older than the organ itself. We suppose that it was built in the early nineteen century.
It is interesting to mention that previous to the Tonoli organ in this church there was an Spanish one, Felipe Portell, installed in 1859 and dismounted before building the current instrument. Many of the pipes of the dismounted Portell organ were probably used to built another organ in Buenos Aires (Some of them are in the church of San Nicolás de los Arroyos).


The Church

The construction of this church began in 1686 following the direction of architec Juan Kraus (a jesuit priest). When he died other important architects (all of them european jesuits) followed the work. Finally, the church construction was completed in 1734. In 1900 the clock tower was added. It was a work of the architec Felipe Senillosa and it came from the "Cabildo" building. The other tower (that oriented to the South) is the oldest construction that we can see in Buenos Aires city today.
This church has been strongly related to the Argentine History. Many important historic facts took place inside the church or very close to it.

The church towers nowdays - picture taken by David Merello - August 2003