Iglesia San Martín de Tours

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About Iglesia San Martín de Tours

The Iglesia San Martín de Tours is the center of Colonia Tovar and the village's oldest building. It was erected by the colonists themselves in the 19th century, with white walls and a high roof, inspired by the church of Endingen, a town in the Kaiserstuhl region from which some of the immigrants who founded the colony in 1843 came. The plan has two naves that meet at an angle, in an L shape, with the altar at the meeting point.

The church sits in the upper part of the village, on a square with views over the roofs and the forested mountains. Around it are the colonists' cemetery, with tombstones in German, and the earliest half-timbered houses with white walls, dark wooden beams and flowered windows.

Near the church operates the Museo de Historia y Artesanía, which tells the story of the colonists' journey from Baden, the founding of the village and life in the isolation of the mountains, with photos, tools, clothing and everyday objects. Going down, Codazzi street concentrates shops selling sweets, jams, sausages, beer and wooden crafts, and the historic lower houses, like Casa Benitz, show the architecture of the early years.

The village remained isolated for more than a century, connected to Caracas only by trails, until the paved road was opened in the 1960s. Because of that it preserved the German dialect of the founders, which some residents still speak, and the patron saint festival, São Martinho, in November.