Giuseppe Fagnano, a Salesian from Piedmont born in 1844, was named prefect apostolic of southern Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands in 1883. In July 1887 he set up his base in Punta Arenas, then a small town, and ran the Salesian missions from here for almost thirty years.
When the wooden church burned in 1892, he pushed for a new one. The Salesian Juan Bernabé drew the plans, and that church is today's cathedral on the main square. A street in the centre carries his name.
His largest project was the San Rafael mission, founded in 1889 on Dawson Island, out in the Strait. As sheep ranches took over Selk'nam land, hundreds of Selk'nam and Kawésqar were taken to the island. The mission's yearly table, compiled by Fernando Aliaga and reproduced by historian Mateo Martinic, records about a thousand people entering and 862 deaths, mostly from disease, before it closed in 1911 with 25 Selk'nam left. Martinic calls the choice of Dawson an error with grave consequences; a 2025 study speaks plainly of deportation and confinement.
Fagnano died in Santiago in 1916. At the townspeople's request his body was brought back and buried in the church he had built.
