Santa María Tonantzintla

From outside, the church of Santa María Tonantzintla looks modest: a façade of red brick and glazed Talavera tiles, typical of the Puebla region. Inside, the nave, vaults and dome erupt into one of the most extraordinary interiors in Mexico. Almost every surface is covered with polychrome and gilded stucco — angels, cherubs, flowers, tropical fruits, ears of corn and human faces, packed so densely that the walls seem alive.

The church stands on ground that, by tradition, was once sacred to Tonantzin, an Aztec mother goddess whose name the village still carries; after the conquest, devotion here was redirected to the Virgin Mary. A first sanctuary was built in the mid-sixteenth century. The bell tower and dome followed in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when the stucco work also began; in the eighteenth century the nave was enlarged and the present façade built, and decorative work continued into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The decoration is a celebrated example of what is called indigenous or folk Baroque. Local craftsmen worked European Christian imagery through their own vision: some angels have dark skin, others blond hair and blue eyes; some wear feathered headdresses; the vaults are heavy with the fruit and maize of the Mexican countryside. The result is a meeting of two worlds rendered in plaster and gold. Its nave inspired the choreographer José Limón, whose modern dance "Tonantzintla" was created in 1951.

Getting there

The church is in the village of Santa María Tonantzintla in the municipality of San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, about 3.5 km from San Andrés Cholula. The nearest airport is Hermanos Serdán International Airport (PBC), about 15 km away.