Exploring Colonial Mexico©
Exploring Colonial Mexico©
Along with Salamanca and Celaya, its gritty neighbors on the dusty high plain of Mexico's Bajío, the city of Irapuato attracts few foreign visitors.
But at its heart lies a wide variety of historic buildings, representing many of the architectural styles of the Spanish colonial era, an unexpected reward for the traveler willing to penetrate beyond the city's unprepossessing outskirts.
The most colorful of these colonial buildings is the 18th century church of San José, conspicuous for its ornate facade, painted dark red and sculpted in popular "Mexican Churrigueresque" style.
Capped by a high, lobed gable, the soaring church front is divided by elaborate estípite pilasters into tiers of ornamental canopied niches containing baroque statues.
Of special interest among the statuary is the Calvary tableau in the upper facade, which features Christ on the cross flanked by the mourning figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist. John the Baptist stands above the scene, framed in an elaborate niche at the apex of the gable.
text and illustration ©1999 Richard D. Perry
More information on the colonial buildings of Irapuato and the neighboring cities of the Bajío can be found in Blue Lakes and Silver Cities, our guidebook to West Mexico.
