Religious, Spiritual sights in Mexico City
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Tenayuca
Settled by Chichimecs in about the 13th century, Tenayuca was later ruled by the Aztecs, and the double-staircase pyramid they left is a smaller version of the now-ruined one that stood in the Templo Mayor. As at the Templo Mayor, each staircase was topped by a temple – one dedicated to the water god Tláloc, the other probably dedicated to the Aztec tribal god Huizilopochtli. Striking serpent sculptures, possibly pre-Aztec, surround three sides of its base (imagine what they looked like when they were painted bright red, yellow and green!). If you just want to admire the pyramid there’s no need to go in, other than to visit the small museum and read the explanatory signs,…
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Templo de Nuestra Señora de Loreto
Noticeably sagging toward the east, this extraordinary church stands upon the site of an earlier chapel that housed a replica of Our Lady of Loreto brought from Italy by a Jesuit priest in 1675. The current church was completed in 1816 with the obligatory neoclassical facade of the period. It promptly started sinking into the ground but fortunately stopped a few years later. Inside, the sinking effect makes you feel like you’re in a topsy-turvy funhouse. A magnificent cupola, ringed at the base by stained-glass images, crowns an unusual four-lobed cross with semicircular chapels in the lobes. After the 1985 earthquake the building was raided of its treasures, and the mura…
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Templo Y Museo De El Carmen
A storehouse of magnificent sacred art, this museum occupies a former school run by the Carmelite order, adjacent to their 17th-century Templo de El Carmen. (The village was named for their patron saint, San Ángelo Mártir.) The collection includes eight oils by Mexican master Cristóbal Villalpando; equally splendid are the polychrome and gilt designs on the ceilings. The big draw, however, are the dozen mummies in the crypt. Thought to be the bodies of 17th-century benefactors of the order, they were uncovered during the revolution by Zapatistas looking for buried treasure.
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Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
Around 1700, to accommodate the faithful flock, the four-towered Basilica de Guadalupe was erected at the site of an earlier shrine. But by the 1970s, the old yellow-domed building proved inadequate to the task, so the new Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was built next door. Designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, it is a vast, round, open-plan structure with a capacity for over 40,000 people. The image of the Virgin hangs above and behind the basilica’s main altar, with moving walkways to bring visitors as close as possible.
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Santa Cecilia Acatitlán
Santa Cecilia Acatitlán, 2km north of Tenayuca, is a small but fine pyramid topped with a temple (both reconstructed) dedicated to the gods Tláloc and Huizilopochtli. It stands in pleasant, leafy grounds behind the pretty, 16th-century Parroquia Santa Cecilia, some of whose stone came from the original pyramid. Access to the pyramid is through the Museo Hurtado, with a small collection of pre-Hispanic sculpture.
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Santa Muerte Altar
Garbed in a sequined white gown, wearing a wig of dark tresses and clutching a scythe in her bony hand, the Saint Death figure bears an eerie resemblance to Mrs Bates from the film Psycho. The Santa Muerte is the object of a fast-growing cult in Mexico, particularly in crime-ridden Tepito, where many of her followers have lost faith in Catholicism. Enter the notoriously dangerous Tepito ‘hood at your own risk.
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Parroquia de San Juan Bautista
This single-nave church and its adjacent former monastery dominate the east side of Plaza Hidalgo. First erected in 1592 by the Franciscan order, the Parroquia de San Juan Bautista has a lavishly ornamented interior, with painted scenes all over the vaulted ceiling. Be sure to inspect the cloister, featuring Tuscan columns and a checkerboard of carved relief panels on the corner ceilings.
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Capilla de las Capuchinas Sacramentarias
There’s a sublime simplicity about the Capilla de las Capuchinas Sacramentarias, the chapel of a convent for Capuchin nuns designed by modernist architect Luis Barragán in 1952. The austere altar, free of the usual iconography, consists only of a trio of gold panels. Visit in the morning to appreciate how light streams through the stained-glass window by Mathias Goeritz.
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Templo de la Santísima
The profusion of ornamental sculpture on the facade – including ghostly busts of the 12 apostles and a representation of Christ with his head in God’s lap – is the main reason to visit the Church of the Holy Sacrament, three blocks east of the Museo Nacional de las Culturas. Most of the carving was done by Lorenzo Rodríguez between 1755 and 1783.
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Catedral Metropolitana
Mexico City’s most iconic structure, this cathedral is a monumental edifice, measuring 109m long, 59m wide and 65m high. Started in 1573, it remained a work in progress during the entire colonial period, and thus displays a catalog of architectural styles, with successive generations of builders striving to incorporate the innovations of the day.
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Virgen del Metro
Housed in a tiled shrine is this evidence of a recent miracle. Metro riders in June 1997 noticed that a water leak in Hidalgo station had formed a stain in the likeness of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Following the discovery, thousands flocked to witness the miraculous image. The stone section was removed and encased in glass at the Zarco entrance to metro Hidalgo.
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Sagrario Metropolitano
Adjoining the east side of the Catedral Metropolitana is the 18th-century Sagrario Metropolitano. Originally built to house the archives and vestments of the archbishop, it is now the city’s main parish church. Its front entrance and mirror-image eastern portal are superb examples of the ultradecorative Churrigueresque style.
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Iglesia y Panteón de San Fernando
At the top of the Plaza de San Fernando stands the handsome 18th-century church of the same saint, with baroque carved doors and an impressive altar. Next door is the Panteón de San Fernando, a cemetery containing the tombs of illustrious 19th-century Mexicans such as Benito Juárez, Vicente Guerrero and Ignacio Zaragoza.
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Parroquia de San Agustín de Las Cuevas
The Parroquia de San Agustín de las Cuevas church, dating from the 1600s, features an oddly modernist contemporary altar, no doubt owing to Barragán’s influence. Exit through the woodsy atrium which fronts the church.
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Parroquia de San Bernardino de Siena
East of Jardín Juárez stands the 16th-century Parroquia de San Bernardino de Siena, with an elaborate gold-painted retablo (altarpiece) and a large tree-studded atrium.
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