Religious, Spiritual sights in Mexico
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Cathedral
On the north side of the plaza, the cathedral was begun in 1528 but wasn't finally completed till 1815 because of several natural disasters. Sure enough, new earthquakes struck in 1816 and 1847, causing considerable damage, but it was restored again in 1920-22. The gold-leaf interior has five gilded altarpieces featuring 18th-century paintings by Miguel Cabrera.
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Templo de Santa Rosa de Viterbos
The 18th-century Templo de Santa Rosa de Viterbos is Querétaro's most splendid baroque church, with its pagoda-like bell tower, unusual exterior paintwork, curling buttresses and lavishly gilded and marbled interior. The church also boasts what some say is the earliest four-sided clock in the New World.
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Pirámide del Sol
The world's third-largest pyramid, surpassed in size only by Egypt's Cheops and the pyramid of Cholula, overshadows the east side of Calzada de los Muertos. The base is 222m long on each side, and it's now just over 70m high. The pyramid was cobbled together around AD 100, from three million tons of stone, without the use of metal tools, pack animals or the wheel.
The Aztec belief that the structure was dedicated to the sun god was validated in 1971, when archaeologists uncovered a 100m-long underground tunnel leading from the pyramid's west flank to a cave directly beneath its center, where they found religious artifacts. It's thought that the sun was worshiped here befo…
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Misión San Ignacio de Kadakaamán
With lava-block walls nearly 1.2m (4ft) thick, the former Jesuit Misión San Ignacio de Kadakaamán stands directly across from San Ignacio's small plaza and is flanked by a tiny grove of citrus trees. Occupying the site of a former Cochimí ranchería (indigenous settlement), the mission has been in continuous use since its founding in 1728. One of the three 18th-century altar pieces inside is dedicated to the San Ignacio de Loyola, the town's patron saint.
The mission was initiated by the famous Jesuit Fernando Consag, and was completed in 1786 under the direction of Dominican Juan Crisóstomo Gómez. Epidemics reduced the Cochimí population from about 5000 to only 120 by…
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churches
One of Mexico's most spectacular churches is an important pilgrimage site owing to the belief that the Virgin appeared here in 1541 - her image stands on the main altar in memory of the apparition. The classic Churrigueresque facade features white stucco 'wedding cake' decorations, contrasting with plain red tiles. During the 18th century, indigenous Mexican Francisco Miguel spent 25 years decorating the altarpieces and the chapel beside the main altar.
Visible from most of town, the hilltop church is 1km northeast of the zócalo. Walk north from the zócalo on Av Juárez for three blocks, then turn right onto Zitlalpopocatl. Alternatively, catch a 'Ocotlán' colectivo fr…
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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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Basílica de Zapopan
Zapopan’s pride and joy, the Basílica de Zapopan, built in 1730, is home to Nuestra Señora de Zapopan, a petite statue of the Virgin visited by pilgrims year-round. The faithful get extreme during the Fiestas de Octubre, when thousands of kneeling old women crawl behind as the statue is carried here from Guadalajara’s central cathedral. The kneeling pilgrims then make the final trek up the basilica’s aisle to pray for favors at her altar. The Virgin receives a new car each year for the procession, but the engine is never turned on (thus remaining ‘virginal’). It’s hauled by men with ropes.
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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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Puebla Cathedral
Puebla’s superbly impressive cathedral, whose image appears on Mexico’s 500-peso bill, occupies the entire block south of the zócalo. It blends early baroque and severe Herreresque-renaissance styles. Construction began in 1550 but most of it took place under Bishop Juan de Palafox in the 1640s. At 69m the towers are Mexico’s highest. Inside, the dazzling interior, the frescoes and elaborately decorated side chapels are all awesome and most have bilingual signs explaining their history and significance.
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El Osario
The Ossuary, otherwise known as the Bonehouse or the Tumba del Gran Sacerdote (High Priest's Grave), is a ruined pyramid to the southwest of El Castillo. As with most of the buildings in this southern section, the architecture is more Puuc than Toltec. It's notable for the beautiful serpent heads at the base of its staircases. A square shaft at the top of the structure leads into a cave beneath it that was used as a burial chamber; seven tombs with human remains were discovered inside. These days a snack bar with telephone and toilets stands nearby.
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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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La Capilla de la Paz
Perched on a hilltop high above Acapulco, La Capilla de la Paz is a beautiful, quiet spot for reflection and meditation. The minimalist, open-air chapel features cascading water, gardens and benches to savor the beautiful aerial view of Acapulco. The chapel’s giant white cross is visible from miles across the bay. Sunset is the best time to visit, when tourists jockey for positions to capture the sun setting within the sculpture of clasped hands. Silence is golden here.
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Basílica de la Soledad
The image of Oaxaca’s patron saint, the Virgen de la Soledad (Virgin of Solitude), resides in the 17th-century Basílica de la Soledad, 3½ blocks west of the Alameda. The church, with a richly carved baroque facade, stands where the image is said to have miraculously appeared in a donkey’s pack in 1543. The Virgin was later adorned with enormous worldly riches – but lost her 2kg gold crown, a huge pearl and several hundred diamonds to thieves in the 1990s.
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Iglesia de San Antonio de Padua
Because of the number of Maya ruins in the vicinity, from which to steal building blocks, and the number of Maya in the area 'needing' conversion to Christianity, Franciscan friars built many churches in the region, including this 16th century church. Although looted on several occasions, the church has some original touches, among them the stone statues of friars in primitive style flanking the side entrances and a Black Christ altarpiece ringed by crude medallions.
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Santuario de Guadalupe
On the northeast edge of Plaza Morelos, the Santuario de Guadalupe feels like the set piece from Willy Wonka's psychedelic spiritual dream. The pink and red walls of this baroque church built from 1708 to 1716 blooms with white flowers and glistens with an abundance of gold leaf. There's so much color, the interior (decorated in 1915) feels like a Hindu temple. It's the kind of place that would inspire Timothy Leary to do up Virgen de Guadalupe acid tabs.
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Santuario de la Cruz Parlante
The Santuario de la Cruz Parlante is five blocks west of the gas station on Hwy 307. There's no sign at the site, but you can't miss the stone wall with a gate. Some of the town's residents do not like strangers in the sanctuary, and may try to take your camera if they see you using it here. The building, a thatch roof set over walls, is next to a small cenote and set on a rock slope. A sign on the door says no one may enter wearing a hat or shoes.
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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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Santuario de la Virgen de Izamal
The monastery's principal church is the Santuario de la Virgen de Izamal, approached by a ramp from the main square. The ramp leads into the Atrium, a huge arcaded courtyard in which the fiesta of the Virgin of Izamal takes place each August 15. There's a sound-and-light show here three days a week. In the small courtyard to the left of the church, look up and toward the Atrium to see the original sundial projecting from the roof's edge.
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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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Convento de San Antonio de Padua
When the Spaniards conquered Izamal, they destroyed the major Maya temple, the Ppapp-Hol-Chac pyramid, and in 1533 began to build from its stones one of the first monasteries in the New World. Work on Convento de San Antonio de Padua was finished in 1561. Under the monastery’s arcades, look for building stones with an unmistakable mazelike design; these were clearly taken from the earlier Maya temple.
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Templo de Santo Domingo
The 16th-century Templo de Santo Domingo is San Cristóbal’s most beautiful church, especially when its facade catches the late-afternoon sun. This baroque frontage, with its outstanding filigree stucco work, was added in the 17th century and includes the double-headed Hapsburg eagle, symbol of the Spanish monarchy in those days. The interior is lavishly gilded, especially the ornate pulpit.
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Ex-Convento Franciscano de la Asunción
This former monastery is up along a shaded path from the southeast corner of Plaza Xicohténcatl. Built between 1537 and 1540, it was one of Mexico's earliest monasteries, and its church - the city's cathedral - has a beautiful Moorish-style wooden ceiling.
Just below the monastery, beside the 19th-century Plaza de Toros (bullring), is a capilla abierta with three unique Moorish-style arches.
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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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