The indigenous mason who built the Parish of San Miguel de Allende

Published January 21, 2023

According to the chronicles of the city, the construction of the Parish of San Miguel Arcángel in San Miguel de Allende was built between 1555 and 1564, by Franciscan monks in a Plateresque style, the simplest of the New Spain colonial era. The classic and common façade

The portal was flanked by two conventional towers.

Almost 200 years later, in 1880, it was decided to improve the façade and the atrium, transforming the original Plateresque architectural proposal of this San Miguel de Allende parish into a neo-Gothic one.

The construction of the famous and current façade of the San Miguel de Allende Parish was in charge of Zeferino Gutiérrez, a quarry and construction worker originally from San Miguel de Allende.
The talented indigenous mason, inspired by a postcard, took the example of the cathedral in Köln, Germany to build it. The prodigious feat took only 10 years to complete.

Probably without this majestic European-style Parish, the city of Guanajuato would not be one of the most longed to visit or inhabit by people from all over the world.