page_title: Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral
section_title: Background: The Major Church
hierarchical_section_title: Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral / History / Background: The Major Church
caption_attribution_description: English: Back portion of the Mexico City Cathedral taken from Rep de Guatemala street
context_page_description: The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico. It is situated atop the former Aztec sacred precinct near the Templo Mayor on the northern side of the Plaza de la Constitución in Downtown Mexico City. The cathedral was built in sections from 1573 to 1813 around the original church that was constructed soon after the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, eventually replacing it entirely. Spanish architect Claudio de Arciniega planned the construction, drawing inspiration from Gothic cathedrals in Spain.
  Due to the long time it took to build it, just under 250 years, virtually all the main architects, painters, sculptors, gilding masters and other plastic artists of the viceroyalty worked at some point in the construction of the enclosure. This same condition, that of its extensive period of construction, allowed the integration into it of the various architectural styles that were in force and in vogue in those centuries, including the Gothic, Baroque, Churrigueresque, Neoclassical styles.
context_section_description: After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and after The return of Hernán Cortés from the exploration of today Honduras, the conquistadors decided to build a church on the site of the Templo Mayor of the Aztec City of Tenochtitlan in order to consolidate Spanish power over the newly conquered territory. There is evidence of the existence of a great major temple dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl, a temple dedicated to the god Huītzilōpōchtli and other minor buildings. The architect Martín de Sepúlveda was the first director of the project between 1524 and 1532, while Juan de Zumárraga was the first bishop of the episcopal see in the New World. The cathedral of Zumárraga was located in the northeastern part of what is now the cathedral. It had three naves separated by Tuscan columns, the central ceiling had intricate engravings made by Juan Salcedo Espinosa and gilded by Francisco de Zumaya and Andrés de la Concha. The main door was probably Renaissance style. The choir had 48 ceremonial chairs made by hand by Adrián Suster and Juan Montaño in pinus ayacahuite wood. For the construction, they used the stones of the destroyed temple of the god Huītzilōpōchtli, god of war and principal deity of the Aztecs.  In spite of everything, this temple was soon considered insufficient for the growing importance of the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This first church was elevated to a cathedral by King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Pope Clement VII according to the bull of 9 September 1534 and, later, named Metropolitan by Pope Paul III in 1547.
  This small, poor church, vilified by all the chroniclers who judged it unworthy of such famous new city, rendered its services well that badly for long years. Soon it was ordered that a new temple be erected, proportionate sumptuousness to the greatness of the colony more, but this new factory encountered so many obstacles for its beginning, with so many difficulties for its continuation, that the old cathedral saw passing in its narrow sumptuous ceremonies of the viceroyalty; and only when the fact that motivated them was of great importance would he prefer another church, like that of San Francisco, to raise in its huge chapel of San José de los Indios the burial mound for the funeral ceremonies of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
  Seeing that the conclusion of the new church was long, its factory was already beginning, in 1584 it was decided to completely repair the Old Cathedral, which would certainly be little less than ruinous, to celebrate in it the Third Mexican Provincial Council.
  The church was a little longer than the front of the new cathedral; its three naves were not 30 meters wide and were covered, the central one with a step-scissors armour, those on the sides with horizontal beams. In addition to the puerta del Perdón door had another call puerta de los Canónigos door, and perhaps a third was left to the Placeta del Marqués. Years later, the cathedral was small for its function. In 1544, the ecclesiastical authorities had already ordered the construction of a new and more sumptuous cathedral.
caption: Back section of cathedral facing República de Guatemala street.
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