I meant to write this up a while ago...

My wife and I traveled to Ecuador for two weeks and one thing we noticed in our guide book was La Capilla del Hombre ("Chapel of Man"), a Humanist chapel in the hills overlooking Quito.

A little history...

The Chapel was conceived by a man named Oswaldo Guayasamín. He was an Ecuadorean painter and sculptor who gained international recognition for his works depicting the emotions of the history of South America. They run the gamut from the pain of Spanish conquest, to exploitation by industries, to simple "working a living out of the earth to survive" dedication (whose name I can't quite think of at the moment), to the love and caring that radiate despite these things. It's been said that his work helped bring catharsis to many by exposing racism, poverty, and social injustice.

While he began planning in 1985, construction did not begin on the Chapel until 1995 (after his museum opened down the road, I believe). Construction lasted 7 years and the Chapel was not opened to the public until 3 years after Guayasamín's death

Meanwhile, in the present day...

The Chapel is co-located with the artist's former residence, at the top of one of the many hills overlooking Quito (Google map). We took a cab ride up to the Fundacion Guayasamin (the primary museum, Google map) then hiked up to the Chapel from there. I think the combination of hoofing it uphill and passing through a residential neighborhood helped set the tone for the Chapel, bringing us down to earth before we arrived.

Sign outside of Capilla del Hombre

The chapel is an impressive yet squat gray stone building with a large cone atop it (similar to pre-Colombian pyramids, evidentially). The compound was still under construction as of Summer of 2007, so the guest entrance currently brings you in on the second level of the chapel.

Sculpture outside Capilla del Hombre

A number of sculptures are placed around the Chapel ranging from an almost whimsical pair of birds made from steel pipe and scrap metal to a grim reminder of what we are capable of doing to our fellow humans (see above image).

Inside the chapel are a variety of his works, ranging from sorrowful to hopeful, a number of quotes ("I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a boy who had no feet"), and an "eternal" flame of hope (which was broken on the museum's opening day when a child dropped a soda bottle on it.)

After our walk within the Chapel, we headed uphill to the artist's former backyard which now features "The Tree of Life" where his ashes are deposited.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a must see for anyone visiting Ecuador. I say, skip the Galapagos (we did), save your money, give the animals there a break, and head up to the museum and Chapel.

Two more cents...

From our conversation with a local guide later, I got the impression that a significant portion of the people are basically a-religious. His attitude, at least, was that he needs to worry about a good life for his kids and he didn't see where religion could help there. He told us about watching "good Catholic" families have kid after kid that they couldn't feed or clothe. Of course, our sample size was rather small...

Links:

1. Google Maps:Capilla del Hombre
2. Google Maps: Fundacion Guayasamin
3. Capilla del Hombre website (in Spanish)

EDIT: Spelling and images... Where the heck are my images?!
Oh, it's because I'm using ImageSh*t to host them... sigh. There's links instead...