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The Open Chapel in Mexico
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
Extract
” en esta tierra los patios son muy grandes y muy gentiles, porque la gente no cabe en las iglesias, y en los patios tiene su capilla para que todos oyan misa los domingos y fiestas, y las iglesias sirven para entre semana.“
Motolinía: Memoriales, I, 92-93One curious and distinctive development of early ecclesiastic architecture in Mexico is the open chapel. The three great monastic orders which early in the sixteenth century divided up Mexico for its spiritual welfare were amazingly successful. The construction of churches, rapid though it was, failed to keep pace with the thousands of converts who thronged to the services and filled the existing buildings to overflowing. Realizing that their Indian followers must have frequent opportunities for attending mass, the monks conceived the idea of erecting small chapels, large enough to shelter the altar and so constructed as to render it visible to great numbers of Indians outside. As the years passed, great cathedrals and many parish churches arose until there were more than enough to serve the people. The open chapels were gradually abandoned or enclosed and dedicated to special uses. Many have disappeared but those which remain provide an interesting commentary upon early colonial religious life in Mexico.
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- Copyright © University of Miami 1959
References
1 The Franciscans, arriving in 1524, took the Valley of Mexico and spread southeast and northwest into Michoacán and to Guadalajara, and later to Yucatán. The Dominicans, beginning in 1526, worked south from Mexico City in the direction of Puebla and as far as Oaxaca. The Augustinians, beginning in 1533, operated also in the Mexican Valley and to the northeast in the present state of Hidalgo and part of Michoacán.
2 To these might be added the chapel originally formed by the upper arches on the front wall of the convent at Yecapixtla.
3 The present chapel was constructed in the seventeenth century on the plan of the original structure. It is now enclosed and dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
4 No longer extant.
5 “Certains de ees atrios — Huejotzingo, Cholula, Calpan — comportent méme des espéces de petites chapelles, appelées posas, qui servaient probablement de reposoirs au cours des processions, et oú l'on disait peut-étre la messe.” Ricard Robert: La conquête spirituelle du Mexique, p. 200.
6 Ibid., p. 202. Scholars disagree as to the original purpose of this large chapel. It was, however, for years open on the atrium side; later enclosed.
7 This chapel was later incorporated in the church building so that its original purpose is not at first apparent to visitors.
8 La primera vez que la vi pensé en la de las basílicas primitivas de Roma, con gran influencia bizantina. Toussaint, Manuel: Paseos coloniales, p. 134.