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St. Francis of Assisi Church, Oranjestad

church in Aruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ23662587 ↗
Source-derived summary

The St. Francis of Assisi Church (Papiamento: Parokia San Francisco di Asis Dutch: Sint Franciscus Kerk) also alternatively called Pro Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi is a religious building belonging to the Catholic Church and serves as the pro-cathedral or temporary cathedral in the city of Oranjestad, on the Caribbean island of Aruba, an autonomous country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Lesser Antilles.

It is a church that follows the Roman or Latin rite and is within the Diocese of Willemstad (Dioecesis Gulielmopolitana). This is one of the most important churches in Aruba that was built in 1829 and offering religious services in Papiamento and English.

See also

Roman Catholicism in Aruba

St.

Editorial summary

“St. Francis of Assisi Church, Oranjestad” enters the record as church in Aruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Francis, Assisi and Church can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1829—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1813. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Francis, Assisi and Church.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“St. Francis of Assisi Church, Oranjestad” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Francis, Assisi and Church provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23662587. Authority coordinates are 12.523, -70.035. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1829.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “St. Francis of Assisi Church, Oranjestad”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow St. Francis of Assisi Church, Oranjestad primary sources, St. Francis of Assisi Church, Oranjestad archive and Francis research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “St. Francis of Assisi Church, Oranjestad”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “St. Francis of Assisi Church, Oranjestad” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.