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a8 local
Tuesday 5 december 2023

Alto Vista chapel and its link to Aruba’s origins

According to Etnia Nativa, a community till getting its cemetery which father
in the 18th century most own Church. However re- Pablo de Algemesi blessed.
of the inhabitants of Aruba ligious festivals continued It is not certain, but it is be-
were indigenous who lived to be celebrated at this sa- lieved that the two graves
on the north coast, one of cred native place, with the belong to Antonio Silvester
the largest communities custom of arriving in pro- and Miguel Alvares, ac-
lived in Alto Vista. cession to Alto Vista. cording to Nooyen. About
50 meters near the chapel
As they were very religious, Two-hundred years after there are still the markings
they had a chief with the the beautiful time of Alto of an old house, where
name of Antonio Silvester of Antonio Silvester’s son- Anna Cathalina Tromp, Vista, people can no lon- Antonio and Bernardino
who guided them in the in-law, Miguel Álvarez, who “neighbors and naturals of ger see much of the town Silvester would have lived.
Christian life and it was he continued to guide the pa- the island Aruba” and thus of Alto Vista from 1750. With About 200 meters from the
who decided to build a rishioners in their prayers. they became natives. a lot of work they found chapel there is a water
stone chapel with a roof the old foundations of the tank which the locals call
of corn rods, which would According to the book, At the end of the eighteen Church of the Queen of Tanki Cacique. In the past
serve as a place of prayer. The History of Alto Vista by century many inhabitants the Holiest Rosary to build this tank was closed. But
In 1750 it was blessed by Fa- R.H. Nooyen, it is not known the island died as a result of a new chapel on the same mostly water was brought
ther Algamesi who came when Domingo Antonio Sil- the black fever epidemic place. The entire surround- out from the Poz di Noord,
from Coro-Venezuela and vester came to Aruba from and since people believed ing area was empty and a well dug in the sand.
appointed Domingo Anto- Venezuela. The elders be- that the Alto Vista area was desolated, making it hard
nio Silvester as the island’s lieve Antonio was a Span- the most infected, they be- to imagine that Alto Vista The chapel can be viewed
first prosecutor in the name iard. In 1780, father Joseph gan to build their homes was a town at all. A hun- from basically any point in
of the Spanish crown and Antonio de la Vegal called further south within the dred years later, people the north side, even from
Rome. In 1752 the prosecu- Bernardino Silvester, one of Noord area, so the town of can see the remains of Paradera and Sero Plat.
tion passed into the hands Antonio’s sons with his wife Noord began to grow into around twenty houses, All the historical remains
some made of stone and around the chapel provide
others of clay. Nowadays, us with an idea on how the
only around six of these old people of Alto Vista
houses remain. used to live. Don’t miss the
opportunity to visit a place
South of the chapel in the of historical significance
yard two graves can be with a window to Aruba’s
observed, there was the past.q

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