San Juan Bautista

San Juan Bautista, better known nowadays as San Juan de Taperas, was founded first in 1699, by the Jesuit Fr. Juan Bautista Zea (who also co-founded San Rafael de Velasco and the ill-fated San Ignacio de Zamucos), then re-founded a short distance away by Frs. Juan Patricio Fernández and Pedro Cerena. It was the only Jesuit mission to have more than two co-founders, as it was abandoned shortly after its first incorporation, and re-settled again in 1711, and again in 1716. Around 1780 it was translated again, the last record we have of the community.

Dr. Robert Jackson, writing in a recent edition (2005, Vol. 12) of the Bolivian Studies Journal, in his article "Demographic Patterns on the Chiquitos Missions of Eastern Bolivia, 1691-1767", makes a very interesting conjecture that the reason San Juan Bautista may have been abandoned and re-founded so many times early on in its history is that it was established not as a conventional reducción but as a visita - a settlement visited only occasionally by a priest until their were a sufficient number of other Jesuits available for permanent staffing.

Today this final settlement is long gone except for a ruined tower, although the name survives as San Juan de Taperas, about 4.5 miles (7 kms) away. The modern settlement is located along the scenic-beyond-belief Río Tucavaca about 28 miles (45 kms) northeast of San José de Chiquitos. The journey is made by following the San José de Chiquitos - Puerto Suárez road to the hamlet of San Juan de Taperas and then bearing left along a dirt track.

The chief appeal of San Juan Bautista is its value as an archaeological site. Much remains to be properly excavated and documented. The ruins of the Jesuit church complex amount to little more than the tower; the modern church, in the town of San Juan de Taperas, is nondescript. Still, the area has a certain mysterious appeal to it. To this day, the reasons for the disappearance of the reducción are unknown (plague and tribal attacks are moist often cited), and it is the mission for which the least information is available. Many of its records were lost in a fire in 1781 (which for some inexplicable reason was rumoured to have been started by the Jesuits themselves). All that is known with certainty is that the settlement was unstable from early on, was relocated several times before being abandoned once and for all by 1831. Its end was hastened by the mysterious fire of 1811, which destroyed almost every building in its path, including the abode and wooden structure that was San Juan Bautista's first and only church.

All that is left of San Juan Bautista

Quite possibly that original church was erected by the energetic Fr. Martin Schmid - a claim backed by Querejazu and others - but there is no firm evidence to support this conjecture as yet.

If you come on a quiet day, bring a lunch and picnic in front of the ruins. There is a sense of calm here. Although apart from the stones nothing tangible remains, something intangible - the lingering past - is definitely here.

The modern-day hamlet of San Juan de Taperas, which came into existence a few years after the Jesuit mission disbanded, has a few hundred residents, but no formal restaurants or hotels (you should ask at the parsonage if looking for a place to sleep). Likewise, it has none of the conventional amenities (e.g., bank, post office) associated with larger towns in the region. Most travellers come for the day only and return to San José de Chiquitos for accommodation.