The restoration of the San Lorenzo Mártir church in Altos, one of Paraguay’s oldest and most important religious heritage sites, has been officially completed after a phased project that lasted nearly eight years. Located about 60km from the capital of Asunción, the colonial Franciscan church remained open throughout conservation, allowing work to move forward without interrupting its religious and community functions.
Designated a National Cultural Heritage Site in 2017, the church’s original appearance was gradually revealed as work advanced. The process, begun in 2018, also brought into focus the historical depth of a site linked to the early days of the Franciscan presence in Paraguay, when Asunción was still a young colonial settlement surrounded by Guaraní territories.
The final conservation phase, focused on the church’s wooden doors and windows, was recently completed, says Ana Butlerov, the new head of the Historical Heritage Unit at Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC). Work on the main and side altarpieces, she tells The Art Newspaper, was completed in an earlier phase.
“During work on the doors and windows, religious services continued without interruption,” Butlerov says.
San Lorenzo Mártir church Courtesy Ministry of Public Works and Communications
One of the central elements of the project was the restoration of the main altarpiece, considered one of the most significant examples of Paraguayan colonial Baroque. Shortly after the work began, Myrian Mármol (Butlerov’s predecessor) warned of the critical condition of the church and its altarpiece. Speaking to the local press, Mármol described the altarpiece as “in a state of disrepair and completely eaten away by termites”, adding that her team had arrived just in time, since the wood was crumbling.
Measuring 5.5m high and 3.75m wide, the main altarpiece had not been fully restored for more than a century. Conservators dismantled it into more than 300 pieces to allow for careful treatment against termites and moisture, two of the main threats to wooden heritage in the region. The effort, which took three years, made it possible to consolidate the structure and recover part of its original polychromy, which had remained hidden beneath layers of deteriorated varnish, repainting and subsequent interventions. As the cleaning progressed, colours, ornamental details and patterns long obscured by time began to reappear.
The process brought the altarpiece back into focus as a work shaped by Franciscan tradition, colonial Baroque aesthetics and the craftsmanship of local workshops historically associated with woodcarving.
The church’s recently restored historic altarpiece Courtesy Ministry of Public Works and Communications
During that first phase, work also focused on the predella and the upper section of the altarpiece, where the images of the saints Joseph, Lawrence and Roch are located alongside the Assumption of Mary. A second phase addressed the wall niches that hold religious images as well as the pulpit, extending the project to other liturgical and historical elements inside the church.
The final phase, which began in 2024, focused on the church’s wooden doors, side entrances and windows, whose original surfaces had been covered for decades by successive layers of paint. Before the conservation work began, specialists carried out photographic documentation, technical assessments and scientific analyses to identify repainting, cracks, structural damage and infestations. After the conservation treatments, expert craftspeople added wood grafts where necessary to replace missing or damaged sections.
The San Lorenzo Mártir church was built in the 16th century and rebuilt after the Paraguayan War (1864-70), a conflict that profoundly transformed the country and affected many of its historic buildings. The church’s conservation is part of a broader effort to recognise Paraguay’s colonial religious heritage, particularly churches that preserve altarpieces, carvings, adobe walls and woodwork linked to the earliest experiences of evangelisation and colonial settlement.
“The intervention reaffirms the historical value of Altos as the birthplace of Paraguayan woodcarving and sets a precedent for future restoration projects in the region, including the planned work on the Virgen de las Mercedes church,” a spokesperson for MOPC said in a statement, anticipating the continuation of its heritage work in the area.
