The oldest church in La Serena, with stone walls a metre thick and a heavy bell tower that has shrugged off four centuries of earthquakes. Built by the Franciscans from 1585, finished around 1627, declared a national monument in 1977.
The interior is plain — stone walls, a wooden ceiling — with a small museum at the back of the convent that holds religious silverwork, books, and paintings from the colonial period. The church remains active and morning Mass is the easiest time to visit.