San Agustin church & ex-monastery

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I spent 2 months in Santiago de Queretaro in winter 2014. My main interest is colonial buildings & churches.

The San Agustin church & monastery complex, located near the corner of Allende & Pino Suárez in the historic center, is a great example of the Baroque style in Latin America. In fact, it’s the most original & most artistic complex built by the Augustinian Order in New Spain. Designed by local architect Don Ignacio Mariano de las Casas & his Augustinian teacher Fray Luis Martinez Lucio, construction was carried out between 1731 and 1745. The basic construction was completed by 1736, but the decorative Baroque art work wasn’t finished until 1745.

Because of the elaborate decoration of the arches & columns, this monastery was considered to be one of the finest Baroque monasteries in the Americas & one of the best examples of baroque work anywhere in the world. Members of the Order began to live in the monastery in 1743 although decorative work on the building continued for a few more years.

The order built the monastery this large so it could be used as a house of study for candidates to the Order. The building served that purpose for about 100 years between 750 to 1850. Then a bloody civil war ensued which resulted in the Mexican Constitution of 1857 & a Reform Act that ordered the confiscation of properties that belonged to the church & its religious orders. The monastery then stood unused for a number of years until the state government began using it as offices in 1889 & occupied the building for the next 100 years. It was then known as the Federal Palace & another section of the building became the general post office for the city. Although the Order no longer owns the monastery, three of its members live nearby and conduct services in the church.

After extensive restoration, the former monastery became the home of the exquisite Querétaro Art Museum in 1988. As one of the most significant attractions in Querétaro, it gets about 50,000 visitors annually. Distributed through 18 rooms organized around the sculpted courtyard, the museum has a permanent collection of art which now numbers over 360 pieces, & has also conducted numerous temporary exhibitions. attracts about 50,000 visitors annually

http://www.amiciudad.com/qro/mapasyclima/Imagenes/mapaQROcentrobaja.jpg

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Photos

Church (ch)
The unique dome is surrounded by life sized angels with musical instruments.

ch
The bell tower was never finished.

Facade
features a crucified Christ & saints in niches.

ch
Vendors outside the church

Former monastery
is now the Museum of Art.

Amazing cloisters
around the sculpted courtyard.

Comments

[Fred Perry]

BRAVO ZULU !
It's great to be able to read your article and admire your photos once again. The article is informative, and the titles did come through for some of the individual photos. Looking forward to seeing more. Cheers!

[fred perry]

I think this works
That's a very nice photo of the main altar. I still wish it would be possible to see large size versions, but nothing I try has the desired effect.

[David Haun]

Great!
Where are you going next?

[Rainyb]

Gto
I plan on going to Guanajuato ;o)

[Ellen Price]

Good Job
Very nice!

[Ben H]

It is quite easy to glance at the photos with captions as everything is on one page.

[Mary]

Enlarge Photos
I have a PC and double clicked on the Main Alter photo. It did enlarge nicely.

[Rainyb]

How to use
If you go toward the bottom of the 1st/title page, you see a blue link saying "additional photos below". Click on that & you get good-sized photos & their captions. There may be more than one page of photos, so don't miss any ;o)