One of the more interesting buildings in Baja California Sur,
if not a bit out of place,
is the Iglesia Santa Barbara in Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur.
This church, made almost entirely of prefabricated metal,
was supposedly designed and built by the French architect Gustave Eiffel,
for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France.
Unfortunately this cannot be confirmed
and there is no clear record of who designed and built the church.
Described as austere by some,
I find the elliptical shape of the interior to be quite pleasing.
If you look at the first photo you can see the outline of the ceiling
in the framing on the outside.
The pieces were ultimately found stored in Europe
and the French company that operated the copper mines in Santa Rosalia,
for which the town was originally built in 1884,
secured them and had them shipped to Santa Rosalia
and the church was erected in 1897 for the last time.
The stamped metal siding may give some ideas to the folks
who are siding their homes and sheds with metal.
As for the rest of the town other than the industrial mine buildings,
most of the buildings are built from wood shipped in over seas,
which is quite a departure from the rest of Baja and most of Mexico.
Most of the info for this post came from the
Santa Rosalia,Baja California Sur entry in Wikipedia.
