The “Sistine Chapel of America” architectural jewel in SMA

Published November 23rd, 2021

Just 20 minutes from San Miguel de Allende, in the town of Atotonilco, is located the Sanctuary of Jesus of Nazareth, a temple that keeps in the interior majestic murals that have given it the name of the “Mexican Sistine Chapel”.

It is one of the most important devotional centers in Mexico, adorned with frescoes, sculptures, portraits, and works of art of baroque style that give it a very particular beauty.

The Sanctuary of Jesus of Nazarene was founded in 1740 and its construction was in charge of the priest Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro, who sought to build a church similar to that of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

The great number of paintings that are captured in the interior of this sanctuary were made by the Queretaro Miguel Antonio Martínez Pocasangre. The central work narrates the passion of Christ developed through a viacrucis with the 14 stations recognized for that time.

The author painted these works by hand directly in the church and it took him more than 30 years to complete what would become his life’s work. To make the paintings, Miguel Antonio climbed on scaffolding and from there he studied the perspective and then began to draw the images.

However, the attraction of this sanctuary is not only in the paintings on the ceilings, the altars are also full of reliefs and sculptures that give it a particular beauty. These works show scenes from the life of Jesus Christ and his apostles, passages from sacred history, or portraits of characters related to local history.

The Sanctuary of Atotonilco is conformed by diverse chapels that have been built in diverse stages: That of Bethlehem (dedicated to the nativity of Christ); the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher (portrays the resurrection and redemption of the world); that of the Holy Cenacle (dedicated to the Virgin of La Soledad), the Chapel of the Virgin of Loreto (patron saint of San Miguel de Allende) and the Chapel of the Rosary.

It is worth mentioning that this sanctuary was declared in 2008, along with the city of San Miguel de Allende, as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

In the history of Mexico, this sanctuary has great importance, because in this site the priest Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, took the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe to use it as a flag of the insurgent army that rose before the Spaniards to achieve independence of Mexico.

Visit this and other emblematic sites for the history of Mexico.