Santa Veracruz Church, Mexico City
Encyclopedia
The Santa Veracruz Church in the historic center of Mexico City
is one of the oldest religious establishments in Mexico City and was the third most important church in the area in the 16th century. It was established by a religious brotherhood founded by Hernán Cortés
.
The parish church was originally built in 1586, but this building was replaced in the 18th century to the one standing today. The former monastery building and hospital now house the Franz Mayer Museum
, but the church still maintains its original function. Most of its interior decorations are gone, but it is still home to two important images, the Christ of the Seven Veils and the Virgin of the Remedies (also called La Gachupina).
The church is located on the east side of the Plaza of Santa Veracruz, between 2 de Abril and Valeriano Trijillo Streets facing Hidalgo Street and the Alameda Central
.
of 1519, or Day of the True Cross, when Cortés landed in Veracruz
.
The original members were conquistador
s. Later, memberships were restricted to aristocrats and others with noble titles, but eventually membership was open to anyone with sufficient money and clout. Those who belonged to the organization wore a large red cross on their chest and a crucifix with an image of the Christ of the Seven Veils on two small tablets with the Ten Commandments. The members’ main duty was to accompany prisoners to jail and those condemned to death to the gallows. They also paid the funeral and burial expenses for these prisoners as well. To the common people, this brotherhood was known as the “Knights of the (straw)Mats” as the prisoners were buried in the cheapest way possible.
This brotherhood requested lands on which to build a church and hospital. The land they received in 1527 was several blocks on what was then called Tlacopan Street. This location was just west of the original Spanish city and just into the neighborhood of Santa María Cuepopan, which was originally set aside for the indigent. It was next to the Tlaxpana Aqueduct and near the La Mariscala fountain, both of which no longer exist. Originally, a small hermitage was built on the site, in the 1520s, making the church one of the oldest in the region.
In 1586, a parish church was built, which would become the third most important in the city by the end of the 16th century. It is said that the church was one of the Chapels of the Stations of the Cross
, functioning as Station #7. This set of churches began with the church of the monastery of San Francisco
. Other brotherhoods which were headquartered here was the Brotherhood of the Most Holy Sacrament (Cofradía del Santísimo Sacramento), Brotherhood of the Slaves of the Most Holy (Cofradía de Esclavos del Santísmo), and Brotherhood of the Tears of Saint Peter (Cofradía de las Lágrimas de San Pedro).
The passage of time, along with damage from sinking subsoil, earthquakes, and flooding in the 16th to 18th century, made the church’s reconstruction necessary. The original structures were demolished and replaced. Construction on the new and current buildings began in 1759 and were finished in 1776, when the towers and the side facade were completed. Saint Blas was declared the patron saint of both the church and the Brotherhood that sponsored it.
During this construction period in 1768, there was a major earthquake in Mexico City, prompting the use of the church’s atrium
for a mass funeral for 488 people.
Originally the interior of the church was rich and ostentatious, with Baroque
altarpiece
s made of precious hardwoods and covered in gold leaf. At the beginning of the 20th century, these were destroyed. All that remains of the original decoration are small marks of the decorative elements and the silverwork in the vault.
It is currently being remodeled by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
and gray sandstone (cantera) with two elaborately decorated Mexican Baroque or Churrigueresque
portals. The portal on the main facade has two levels, with entrance through a rounded arch flanked by pilaster
s with inverted, elongated, truncated pyramid shapes called estipites. The second level has two pairs of estipites, with a simple cross, a large choral window, and three pyramid-shaped pinnacles. At the top of the facade is a sculpture of Saint Joseph
. The side portal is richer than the main one.
Access is through a rounded arch flanked by two estipites. It consists of a rounded arch with raised decorative features, flanked by two pilasters decorated with plants motifs, cherubs, and the faces of saints. One aspect of this decoration that stands out are two angels carrying flowers. These flowers carry over to the pediment
, which also bears an inscription referring completion of the towers and the side portal.
The upper level of the facade is marked by estipite pilasters. Between them is a richly-decorated niche with an image of Saint Blas. Above this is a medallion with a cross, and above the cross is an image of the Archangel Michael.
Next door is the priest’s quarters, constructed by Lorenzo Rodriquez, who was the architect of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The old monastery and Hospital de San Juan de Dios are now the Franz Mayer Museum. These buildings, along with the church, frame the Plaza de Santa Veracruz.
The building has one nave
, with a layout of a Latin cross. The nave is covered in vaults of several different types with some containing images of cherubs done in relief. The cupola
has eight sides and a raised area with windows (linternilla). The main nave contains the painting Virgin of Guadalupe before the Holy Trinity from the 18th century, and three works from the 19th century called The Baptism of Jesus, The Divine Providence, and The Virgin at the Foot of the Cross. There are also images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Blas. In the south bell tower there is a dramatic image of Christ the Nazarene which is dated to the 18th century.
The north side has two large chapels. One is dedicated to the Señor de la Salud (Lord of Health) and the Señor del Santo Entierro (Lord of the Holy Burial). This chapel also serves as the church’s baptistery with a fount containing an image of the Holy Lamb. The other is called the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It contains a Baroque altarpiece that features images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Saint Peter
, Saint Paul, and the archangels Michael and Gabriel. This altarpiece is said to contain a splinter of the original cross of Jesus, donated in 1968 by Cardinal Miguel Darío Miranda y Gómez
of Mexico and previously authenticated by the Vatican
in 1967. The chapel is adorned with hand-painted tiles with contains scenes from the life of missionary Francisco Xavier done by Miguel Cabrera
.
In the apse
, in a simple niche, is the Christ of the Seven Veils, done in cornstalk paste in the 16th century, accompanied by images of the Virgin of the Sorrows and John the Baptist
. According to tradition, it was given to Carlos V
from Pope Paul III
. Carlos V then awarded it to the Brotherhood. It was also believed that those permitted to remove the veils and see the image underneath were rewarded with indulgence
s. Another important image here is the Virgin of the Remedies (Virgen de los Remedios), which is also known as La Gachupina. Gachupin is a derogatory term for Spaniard. She received the term as she was the patron of the Spanish in Mexico. The Virgin originally had her own sanctuary but was brought here to ask for rain during a dry period, and never left.
The remains of Manuel Tolsá
, the architect responsible for a number of the city center’s iconic buildings, were buried here since he died in 1816.
Historic center of Mexico City
The historic center of Mexico City is also known as the "Centro" or "Centro Histórico." This neighborhood is focused on the Zócalo or main plaza in Mexico City and extends in all directions for a number of blocks with its farthest extent being west to the Alameda Central The Zocalo is the largest...
is one of the oldest religious establishments in Mexico City and was the third most important church in the area in the 16th century. It was established by a religious brotherhood founded by Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
.
The parish church was originally built in 1586, but this building was replaced in the 18th century to the one standing today. The former monastery building and hospital now house the Franz Mayer Museum
Franz Mayer Museum
The Franz Mayer Museum , in Mexico City opened in 1986 to house, display and maintain Latin America’s largest collection of decorative arts. The collection was amassed by stockbroker and financial professional Franz Mayer, who collected fine artworks, books, furniture, ceramics, textiles and many...
, but the church still maintains its original function. Most of its interior decorations are gone, but it is still home to two important images, the Christ of the Seven Veils and the Virgin of the Remedies (also called La Gachupina).
The church is located on the east side of the Plaza of Santa Veracruz, between 2 de Abril and Valeriano Trijillo Streets facing Hidalgo Street and the Alameda Central
Mexico City Alameda Central
Alameda Central is a public municipal park in downtown Mexico City, adjacent to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, between Juarez Avenue and Hidalgo Avenue.-Description:...
.
History
Shortly after the Conquest, Hernán Cortés founded the Archicofradía de la Cruz as an act of gratitude for the successful arrival of the Spanish on the American mainland. The Brotherhood was named after the Good FridayGood Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
of 1519, or Day of the True Cross, when Cortés landed in Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
.
The original members were conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s. Later, memberships were restricted to aristocrats and others with noble titles, but eventually membership was open to anyone with sufficient money and clout. Those who belonged to the organization wore a large red cross on their chest and a crucifix with an image of the Christ of the Seven Veils on two small tablets with the Ten Commandments. The members’ main duty was to accompany prisoners to jail and those condemned to death to the gallows. They also paid the funeral and burial expenses for these prisoners as well. To the common people, this brotherhood was known as the “Knights of the (straw)Mats” as the prisoners were buried in the cheapest way possible.
This brotherhood requested lands on which to build a church and hospital. The land they received in 1527 was several blocks on what was then called Tlacopan Street. This location was just west of the original Spanish city and just into the neighborhood of Santa María Cuepopan, which was originally set aside for the indigent. It was next to the Tlaxpana Aqueduct and near the La Mariscala fountain, both of which no longer exist. Originally, a small hermitage was built on the site, in the 1520s, making the church one of the oldest in the region.
In 1586, a parish church was built, which would become the third most important in the city by the end of the 16th century. It is said that the church was one of the Chapels of the Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...
, functioning as Station #7. This set of churches began with the church of the monastery of San Francisco
Church of San Francisco, Madero Street, Mexico City
The Church of San Francisco is located at the western end of Madero Street in the historic center of Mexico City, near the Torre Latinoamericana and is all that remains of the church and monastery complex...
. Other brotherhoods which were headquartered here was the Brotherhood of the Most Holy Sacrament (Cofradía del Santísimo Sacramento), Brotherhood of the Slaves of the Most Holy (Cofradía de Esclavos del Santísmo), and Brotherhood of the Tears of Saint Peter (Cofradía de las Lágrimas de San Pedro).
The passage of time, along with damage from sinking subsoil, earthquakes, and flooding in the 16th to 18th century, made the church’s reconstruction necessary. The original structures were demolished and replaced. Construction on the new and current buildings began in 1759 and were finished in 1776, when the towers and the side facade were completed. Saint Blas was declared the patron saint of both the church and the Brotherhood that sponsored it.
During this construction period in 1768, there was a major earthquake in Mexico City, prompting the use of the church’s atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
for a mass funeral for 488 people.
Originally the interior of the church was rich and ostentatious, with Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
s made of precious hardwoods and covered in gold leaf. At the beginning of the 20th century, these were destroyed. All that remains of the original decoration are small marks of the decorative elements and the silverwork in the vault.
It is currently being remodeled by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
The building
The building has facades on the west, south and east sides, with the south facade, facing Hidalgo Street, as the main one. These facades are covered in tezontleTezontle
Tezontle is a porous, extrusive, igneous, volcanic rock used extensively in construction in Mexico. It is usually reddish in color.-Uses:Tezontle can be mixed with concrete to form lightweight concrete blocks, or mixed with cement to create stucco finishes. Tezontle is often used as the top...
and gray sandstone (cantera) with two elaborately decorated Mexican Baroque or Churrigueresque
Churrigueresque
Churrigueresque refers to a Spanish Baroque style of elaborate sculptural architectural ornament which emerged as a manner of stucco decoration in Spain in the late 17th century and was used up to about 1750, marked by extreme, expressive and florid decorative detailing, normally found above the...
portals. The portal on the main facade has two levels, with entrance through a rounded arch flanked by pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s with inverted, elongated, truncated pyramid shapes called estipites. The second level has two pairs of estipites, with a simple cross, a large choral window, and three pyramid-shaped pinnacles. At the top of the facade is a sculpture of Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....
. The side portal is richer than the main one.
Access is through a rounded arch flanked by two estipites. It consists of a rounded arch with raised decorative features, flanked by two pilasters decorated with plants motifs, cherubs, and the faces of saints. One aspect of this decoration that stands out are two angels carrying flowers. These flowers carry over to the pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
, which also bears an inscription referring completion of the towers and the side portal.
The upper level of the facade is marked by estipite pilasters. Between them is a richly-decorated niche with an image of Saint Blas. Above this is a medallion with a cross, and above the cross is an image of the Archangel Michael.
Next door is the priest’s quarters, constructed by Lorenzo Rodriquez, who was the architect of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The old monastery and Hospital de San Juan de Dios are now the Franz Mayer Museum. These buildings, along with the church, frame the Plaza de Santa Veracruz.
The building has one nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
, with a layout of a Latin cross. The nave is covered in vaults of several different types with some containing images of cherubs done in relief. The cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
has eight sides and a raised area with windows (linternilla). The main nave contains the painting Virgin of Guadalupe before the Holy Trinity from the 18th century, and three works from the 19th century called The Baptism of Jesus, The Divine Providence, and The Virgin at the Foot of the Cross. There are also images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Blas. In the south bell tower there is a dramatic image of Christ the Nazarene which is dated to the 18th century.
The north side has two large chapels. One is dedicated to the Señor de la Salud (Lord of Health) and the Señor del Santo Entierro (Lord of the Holy Burial). This chapel also serves as the church’s baptistery with a fount containing an image of the Holy Lamb. The other is called the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It contains a Baroque altarpiece that features images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Saint Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
, Saint Paul, and the archangels Michael and Gabriel. This altarpiece is said to contain a splinter of the original cross of Jesus, donated in 1968 by Cardinal Miguel Darío Miranda y Gómez
Miguel Darío Miranda y Gómez
Miguel Darío Miranda y Gómez was a Mexican Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Mexico City from 1956 to 1977, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1969.-Biography:...
of Mexico and previously authenticated by the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
in 1967. The chapel is adorned with hand-painted tiles with contains scenes from the life of missionary Francisco Xavier done by Miguel Cabrera
Miguel Cabrera
José Miguel Cabrera Torres nicknamed "Miggy", is a Venezuelan professional baseball first baseman with the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball. He bats and throws right-handed....
.
In the apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
, in a simple niche, is the Christ of the Seven Veils, done in cornstalk paste in the 16th century, accompanied by images of the Virgin of the Sorrows and John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
. According to tradition, it was given to Carlos V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
from Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III , born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation...
. Carlos V then awarded it to the Brotherhood. It was also believed that those permitted to remove the veils and see the image underneath were rewarded with indulgence
Indulgence
In Catholic theology, an indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the Catholic Church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution...
s. Another important image here is the Virgin of the Remedies (Virgen de los Remedios), which is also known as La Gachupina. Gachupin is a derogatory term for Spaniard. She received the term as she was the patron of the Spanish in Mexico. The Virgin originally had her own sanctuary but was brought here to ask for rain during a dry period, and never left.
The remains of Manuel Tolsá
Manuel Tolsá
Manuel Tolsá was a prolific Neoclassical architect and sculptor in Spain and Mexico.-Biography:...
, the architect responsible for a number of the city center’s iconic buildings, were buried here since he died in 1816.