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The Jesuit missions in South America were an important and unique advance inChristian evangelisation on the continent until the expulsion of the Order in1767. Although the history and cultural aspects of these missions and theirmost iconic buildings have been extensively studied, the archaeoastronomy ofthe Guaran\'i peoples of the Province of Paraquaria (Province of Paraguay) hasonly been recently considered, with the existing studies focusing primarily onthe orientation of their churches. The paper presented here, which is the firstarchaeoastronomical study of the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos in easternBolivia, is an attempt to continue and complement the previousarchaeoastronomical studies of the region. The methodologies employed involvedthe analysis of the Jesuit churches that currently exist in this region,namely, the on-site measurements of the orientations of eight churchescurrently standing and the ruins of a ninth church of which only afree-standing bell tower and parts of the side walls remain preserved. Theorientation measurements of a tenth church, which we were unable to visit, weredetermined via the use of satellite maps. The landscape surrounding thesechurches was then examined in detail and furthermore, a detailed cultural andhistorical study of the characteristics of the villages where the churches arelocated was carried out. Our results show that, unlike the churches of theProvince of Paraquaria where meridian orientations in the north-south directionstand out, half of the studied churches have shown potential canonicalorientations that seem to be aligned to solar phenomena, with three exhibitingprecise equinoctial orientation. We propose reasons for these orientations,including the possible relevance of illumination effects on significantinternal elements within the churches - effects that were generally sought inBaroque church architecture.

The orientation of Jesuit churches in the Chiquitos missions of eastern Bolivia