Church of San Francisco Javier, Tepotzotlán

The church of San Francisco Javier in Tepotzotlán, just north of Mexico City, is one of the high points of Mexican Baroque, both outside and in. It belonged to the Jesuit College of San Francisco Javier, founded after the Jesuits arrived in the town in the 1580s, where young members of the order were trained and missionaries learned indigenous languages. The church itself was built between 1670 and 1682 to plans by Diego de la Sierra and José Durán de Almendranejo. Its famous front came later: between 1760 and 1762, Durán's grandson Ildefonso de Iniesta Bejarano designed the façade and tower, carved in grey chiluca stone, often called the most important Churrigueresque façade in Mexico.

Seen from the atrium, the façade is a dense screen of estípites — tapering, inverted-pyramid pilasters — niches, saints and scrolling ornament that dissolves the wall into carving, with the slender tower rising beside it. Inside, the effect is multiplied. Ten altarpieces of cedar, covered entirely in gold leaf, fill the interior; they were made in the mid-eighteenth century by the sculptor Higinio de Chávez, with paintings by the celebrated painter Miguel Cabrera, whose large canvases include the Patronage of the Virgin over the Society of Jesus.

Beyond the nave lie smaller treasures: a replica of the Holy House of Loreto, and behind it the Camarín de la Virgen, a small chamber whose dome is crowned by four angels and encrusted with painted and gilded ornament. The church was declared a national historic monument in 1933. Since 1964 it and the former college have formed the Museo Nacional del Virreinato, the national museum of the colonial era, and in 2010 the complex was inscribed on the World Heritage List as part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.

Getting there

The church stands on Plaza Hidalgo in Tepotzotlán, a small town in the State of Mexico north of the capital. Felipe Ángeles International Airport (NLU) is about 22 km away. From Mexico City, buses and minibuses leave from the Cuatro Caminos and El Rosario Metro terminals, and from the Lechería and Cuautitlán stations of the Tren Suburbano; intercity buses also run from the Northern Bus Terminal.