Aguascalientes.A Sanctuary of Design: El Santuario de Guadalupe in Aguascalientes

Exploring Colonial Mexico©

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COLONIAL GEMS OF AGUASCALIENTES 2.

Aguascalientes: El Santuario de Guadalupe

During a recent tour of Guanajuato, we took a side trip north to the city of Aguascalientes, a town little visited by tourists that nevertheless boasts many late colonial buildings of originality and distinction.

Among the most beautiful and the most fully realized of the city churches is the Temple or santuario of Guadalupe. Located on Guadalupe St, in the barrio of the same name just northwest of the city center, it is in an excellent state of preservation and is considered one of the most important of the city churches.

Construction began in 1767, and took 22 years to complete. The temple is the work of Felipe de Ureña, the master architect and designer who helped to transform late colonial architecture and design throughout north central Mexico. He drew up the plans and designed the facade and the other ornamental details that contribute to the overall creative vision of the temple.

In particular, the interior design and detailing are thought to be Ureña's, possibly in collaboration with his son, Francisco Bruno, and may be the only fully realized example now extant of his concept of "total design" in architecture and decoration.

As part of this concept, Ureña also designed the original gilded main retablo - which was fabricated by his celebrated workshop probably with the assistance of his son-in-law Juan Garcia de Castañeda . Although this was destroyed in the early 1900s and a neoclassical altarpiece put in its place, in recent years this too has been replaced by a reconstruction, in stone and stucco rather than wood, of the Ureña original.

The Facade (c.1780)
The highly ornate west front (above) is one of Ureña's masterpieces, a culminating statement of the Guanajuatan baroque style which he inaugurated.* Tall, slender estípite columns and richly encrusted niche-pilasters rise through the elevated first tier, stressing the soaring verticality of the facade - an effect enhanced by the successively diminishing choir window and upper sculpture niche. The facade is surmounted by a multi-faceted, pinnacle-like pediment, a later addition.

The freestanding statue of Guadalupe, mounted in front of choir window, is a classic Ureña touch.

The predominance of rococo influenced ornament, intertwined volutes and foliage, throughout the facade creates a dense sculptural effect but with a graceful touch, initiated by the scalloped entry and choir window arch and intensified by a number of whimsical "grotesque" reliefs incorporating fabulous beasts (right).

Although less ornate than the facade, the north porch has a more folksy charm, framed by an intimate plazita and animated by Pueblan tile above the doorway and around the dome.

The Virgin of Guadalupe

< A stone statue of Guadalupe (left), formerly painted and pre-dating the present church, can still be seen mounted inside the entry to the casa cural on the south side of the church.

Fine colonial paintings inside the church include a classic late 18th century image of the Virgin of Guadalupe by the noted Mexican painter José de Alcíbar (right) and another portrayal with scenes from the Life of the Virgin by José Berrueco.

Felipe de Ureña *

Known as El maestro transhumante, the "peripatetic master", Felipe de Ureña was the most influential of the Mexican born architect /designers to introduce and expand the Churrigueresque style into New Spain. During the second half of the 18th century, together with family members, he was primarily responsible for the spread and subsequent evolution of this ornate late baroque style into cities across Mexico, especially along the silver routes north of Mexico City.

Primarily an innovative designer and fabricator of altarpieces, he later adapted the barroco estípite style as it was called, for church facades. His elegant and distinctive designs are recognized and known as the felipense style.

Aficionados will enjoy visiting these other outstanding colonial buildings in Aguascalientes:

See our page on the elegant Palacio del Gobierno (state office building) on the main plaza. The building dates from the 1700s and is distinguished by its attractive neo-moorish interior arcaded patios. On the outside, smooth white limestone entries and decorative balconied windows create a dramatic contrast with plain exterior walls of rough, dark red tezontle .

The Cathedral (1708-38) features a retablo facade with solomonic columns and dense, stamplike floral relief ornament.
The original main retablo (c.1744), now lost, was also designed and fabricated by Felipe de Ureña again, with the probable assistance of Juan Garcia de Castañeda, who designed and fabricated the side retablos, now also lost.

El Templo del Encino (1773-76) Attributed to Francisco Bruno de Ureña, the son of Felipe de Ureña. Features a Churrigueresque facade related to that of Guadalupe, although smaller & less ornate. Estípites with scrolled niches, carved in a flat, geometric, rather than modeled style are flanked by outlying massed plain columns and lend a dramatic flared effect to the facade. A painting of the Baptism of Christ by the noted Mexican artist Juan Correa rests in the baptistry.

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