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Alejandro Bustillo was part of a team of urban planners, coordinated by the president of National Parks, Dr. Exequiel Bustillo (Alejandro Bustillo's brother). This group, who also included Ernesto Estrada and Miguel Ángel Cesari, was the promoter of works such as the Civic Center, the Llao-Llao Hotel, among others.



Given that the characteristics of the project, due to its size, spoke of something important and difficult to solve for the community of the faithful, from the economic point of view, the nation offered the money for its realization.



In 1942 the domain of the land where it was located was regularized and two years later it was completed with the concrete structure made by the General Construction Company under the leadership of the Engineer Pedro Faukland, acting as foreman Don Esteban Capitanich. It was when the stonemasons began their work.



Then Don José Lukman, Slovenian by birth, stonemason by inheritance, received in his youth after four years of school carving in the Roman cellars of Aurisinia, was appointed foreman of the team. He was in charge of a group of around 20 people, where only 6 knew the trade completely, the rest were apprentices. He was the one who designed and carved the moldings that give elegance to the ensemble, and who with hammer blows shaped most of the arches and the lace stone.



Exequiel Bustillo promoted a Commission of Ladies, which, chaired by Mrs. Isabel Nevares de Ortiz Basualdo - Bishop Jaime de Nevares' sister - managed to raise enough money through donations to commission the stained glass windows. The stained glass was made by a Frenchman named Enrique A. Thomas, in Buenos Aires.



To determine which images would correspond to the temple, Dr. Exequiel Bustillo contacted Monsignor Essandi warmly suggesting the possibility that these images had regional links, a participation that the priest enthusiastically accepted. And so a beautiful image of Our Lady of Nahuel Huapi - patron saint of the temple - and vernacular images emerged from Enrique Thomas' workshop. On June 4, 2004, a replica of a lost image arrived from Achao, Chiloé Island, Chile, which accompanied the first Jesuit settlement on the banks of the Nahuel Huapi. This replica was made by the Chilote sculptor Milton Muñoz in a block of millenary larch. Today this image is located on the main altar of the cathedral and is the current patron image of the city. The stained glass windows also represent the aborigines, the Jesuit Father Nicolás Mascardi, Fray Francisco Menéndez, General Julio Argentino Roca, Ceferino Namuncurá, Father Milanesio - the first priest of the town of Bariloche - and even the creators of the temple: the architects Alejandro Bustillo represented as Saint Raphael - and Miguel Angel Césari, as Saint Michael the Archangel.



The stained glass windows were placed in 1947, leaving the work finished on the outside, with the interior still rough and a smooth cement floor. Even so, neighbors, including Luis Fernández and Pablo Depellegrin, provided some banks. In the bell tower, without bells, a carillon with amplifiers was installed, which for many years, accompanied the people of Bariloche with its excellent sound of bells.





The Cathedral of San Carlos de Bariloche, ´´Nuestra Señora del Nahuel Huapi´´, is the main Catholic temple in the city of San Carlos de Bariloche, in Argentina.



The material used for its construction was the "white stone". It is curious to note, expressed by some parishioners, how the effect generated by this mineral can transport us to an inner world of sensitive austerity. An impression perhaps linked to the caves of the first Christians, who found in these means of construction (stone) the means to build.

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