The enclosure is made up of several churches and buildings, among which are those indicated below.
Capilla de Indios (Indian Chapel) It is a church built in 1649 by
Luis Lasso de la Vega. According to tradition, it housed the image of
Our Lady of Guadalupe from 1695 to 1709 —the year in which it was transferred to the church known as the Old Basilica— and the standard of
Miguel Hidalgo from 1853 to 1896. The name is due to the fact that this chapel was originally built for the cult of the indigenous population to the Virgin. The foundations of the first two churches dedicated to the Virgin that Friar
Juan de Zumárraga ordered to be built in the place indicated by Saint
Juan Diego, days after the declared apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, are preserved under it. From 1531 until his death in 1548, Juan Diego lived in this place (and his relics or remains are kept in the same place), in charge of taking care of the first place of worship.
Capilla del Cerrito It is the parish where the miracle of fresh flowers and the first of the apparitions of Santa María de Guadalupe are remembered. A first chapel was built on the Tepeyac hill in 1666 by the will of Cristóbal de Aguirre and Teresa Pelegina. Around 1740,
Capilla del Pocito Temple located near the eastern slope of the Tepeyac hill. It was built from 1777 to 1791 and designed by the architect
Francisco Guerrero y Torres.
Guadalupe Basilica Museum The museum, opened in 1941, in the north wing of Las Capuchinas Convent, houses an important collection of New Spanish art made up of nearly 4,000 cultural assets, many of them unique and unrepeatable, including paintings, sculptures, jewelry, gold and silver work, and others. It has works by the most important painters of New Spain, highlighting those of
Cristóbal de Villalpando,
Miguel Cabrera,
Matías de Arteaga y Alfaro,
Juan Correa,
Juan Cordero,
José de Ibarra,
Sebastián López de Arteaga,
Nicolás Rodríguez Juárez,
Baltasar de Echave Ibía and
José de Alcíbar. Its hall has more than 2,000
ex-votos dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe and is a space for temporary exhibitions.
Templo Expiatorio a Cristo Rey (Old Basilica of Guadalupe) Its construction began with the laying of the first stone on March 25, 1695, and ended in April 1709. The architect
Pedro de Arrieta was the designer of this new temple for the Virgin. It has four octagonal towers at each of its corners, fifteen vaults and an octagonal dome with a lantern covered in
Talavera yellow and blue. In 1749 it received the title of collegiate church, a designation given to certain Catholic temples that allows them to be managed both pastorally and administratively by a group of priests called "cabildo". At the beginning of the 19th century, and due to the construction of the Capuchin convent on the east side, the temple suffered serious damage, for which it had to be repaired, and due to this reason it had a total change inside. The Baroque style disappeared and was replaced by the Neoclassical, with an altar designed by José Agustín Paz and
Manuel Tolsá. Due to the appointment in 1887 of Pope Leo XIII of the Pontifical Coronation of the Virgin, again suffering from the construction on a fragile ground, the collegiate church was intervened again, replacing the altarpiece with a white Carrara marble altar, designed by Juan Agea Salomé Pina and carved by
Carlo Nicoli, covered with a canopy of Scottish granite columns weighing 4 tons each and a bronze vault. The entire interior of the church was also restored and enlarged, placing five monumental paintings on its walls with passages from Guadalupan history. The works concluded on October 12, 1895. Among the monumental paintings on the walls, located above the entrance from the right side of the church, is a 6m x 4.5m oil painting by artist
Joan Fabregat Milá depicting the authorization of the coronation of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1740 by the Vatican. In 1904, the collegiate church was elevated to the rank of basilica, by papal decision. The papal coronation was on December 12 of that same year.
New Basilica of Guadalupe (modern basilica) housed in the New Basilica 's crypt (a Spaniard singer) within the crypts in the basilica. The new basilica is to the west of the Atrio de las Américas and to the south of the Tepeyac hill. It was built due to the need to house the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and allow access to a greater number of pilgrims, as the old temple was unstable and dangerous. The new building was designed by the architects:
José Luis Benlliure,
Pedro Ramírez Vázquez,
Alejandro Schoenhofer, Friar
Gabriel Chávez de la Mora, Antonio S. Gómez Palacio and Javier García Lascuráin. Its construction began in 1974 during the abbotship of Monsignor Guillermo Schulenburg, with Odilón Ramírez Pelayo, the lawyer of the Basilica of Guadalupe for many years, in charge of the legal procedures for the acquisition of the land. Pelayo also contracted the architects to design the building, and managed the construction of the small chapel dedicated to the New Basilica of Guadalupe inside
St. Peter's Basilica in
Vatican City. On October 12, 1976, when the work was finished, the Guadalupe image was taken in procession to its new sanctuary. Having a circular shape to symbolize the tent that housed the
Ark of the Covenant on its march through the desert, the building was built with reinforced concrete for the roof structure, covered with green oxidized copper sheets. In 1980, Monsignor Guillermo Schulenburg, abbot of the basilica, asked Pedro Medina Guzmán for a mural painting for the tabernacle, which was finished at the end of the same year called "The gift of the Resurrection". As well as the murals found in the crypts with the theme of the apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe to San
Juan Diego. It has seven entrances to the front, above which there is an open chapel with a certain reminiscence of the atriums of the 16th century, from which mass can be celebrated for those present in the atrium. Above this chapel is a large cross, and above it and at the top of the roof is a monogram of Mary with another cross in the center. To prevent the settling of the land that occurred in surrounding buildings, this was built using 344 control piles, the work of engineer Manuel González Flores. As the interior is circular and self-supporting (without supporting members to obstruct the view), the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe can be seen from everywhere inside the basilica. It is behind the altar, under a large cross, on a wall with a finish similar to the ceiling. For better visibility of the image, a walkway was built under the altar with conveyor belts. The altar has a different finish, made of marble and is at various levels above the assembly. This venue has received the visit of heads of state, athletes, politicians, artists and leaders of several Christian denominations. Pope
John Paul II visited five times, in 1979, 1990 (on the occasion of the beatification of Saint Juan Diego), 1993, 1999 (at the close of the Synod of Bishops of America) and 2002 (for the canonization of Saint
Juan Diego). In February 2016
Pope Francis officiated a mass at the main altar of the Basilica of Guadalupe. == Gallery ==