The Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno of Atotonilco

After his rousing Grito de Dolores on the early morning of September 16th, 1810, Father Hidalgo and his angered supporters marched towards San Miguel and independence. They stopped at the Sanctuary of Atotonilco, seven miles from San Miguel, where Hidalgo took a cloth bearing a likeness of the Virgin of Guadalupe from the altar and raised it as a banner to lead his troops. For that alone; Atotonilco deserves a place in Mexico’s history.

But the Sanctuary of Atotonilco has been an important site for worship and destination for pilgrimage since its inception in 1740. The Church’s founder, Father Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro, dedicated 30 years to completing the church and six adjoining chapels. To interpret his vision of the life of Christ and instruct his parishioners, he commissioned the relatively unknown artist Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre to paint elaborate frescoes which blanket the walls and ceilings.

Father Alfaro meant the Sanctuary to be a site for penitence and purification, so many of the paintings are dark and chilling, the subjects somber. Yet local color is also evident in the work of Pocasangre: Catholic saints and martyrs and scenes of the Last Judgment are illustrated with colorful banners containing explanatory verses written by Father Alfaro, and intermingled with ornate floral decorations and depictions of indigenous legends and beliefs. In addition to the frescoes the Church is also home to a treasury of elaborate Baroque sculpture, including the venerated and said to be miraculous statue of Our Lord of the Column. In all, over 200 pieces of irreplaceable religious art are presently conserved within the Sanctuary.

However, by 1995 age, weather and vandals had caused both murals and sculpture to deteriorate to such an extent that a group of concerned local citizens became determined to preserve it. They approached the World Monument Fund and the Sanctuary was placed on a watch list of the worlds 100 most endangered sites in 1996. With funds received from the WMF restoration began and the committee was able to enlist the aid of state and federal resources to continue the project. The Sanctuary gradually regained some of its former glory, and was removed from the watch list, but the work is not over.

Now, UNESCO will join the efforts to conserve and protect the site. For in July, 2008 San Miguel de Allende and the Sanctuary of Jesus Naverene in Atotonilco were together declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site, because, as the selection committee said “they represent some of the finest examples of Baroque art and architecture in New Spain.”

Originally Published June 2006 ©imprint Publishing & Advertising