page_title: Oaxaca City
section_title: Churches and religious buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Oaxaca City / Notable sites / Churches and religious buildings
caption_attribution_description: Español: templo de la soledad em el centro de oaxaca
context_page_description: The city and municipality of Oaxaca de Juárez, or Oaxaca City, is the capital and largest city of the eponymous Mexican state. It is located in the Centro District in the Central Valleys region of the state, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre at the base of the Cerro del Fortín, extending to the banks of the Atoyac River. Heritage tourism makes up an important part of the city's economy, and it has numerous colonial-era structures as well as significant archeological sites and elements of the continuing native Zapotec and Mixtec cultures. The city, together with the nearby archeological site of Monte Albán, was designated in 1987 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the site of the month-long cultural festival called the "Guelaguetza", which features Oaxacan dance from the seven regions, music, and a beauty pageant for indigenous women.
  The city is nicknamed "la Verde Antequera" due to its prior Spanish name and the variety of structures built from a native green stone. The name Oaxaca is derived from the Nahuatl name for the place, Huaxyacac, which was Hispanicized to Guajaca, later spelled Oaxaca.
context_section_description: The Oaxaca Cathedral, also referred to as Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, is the third to be built as the first two were destroyed by large earthquakes in the 16th and 18th centuries.  Construction of this third church began in 1702 and it was consecrated in 1733. Its facade is made of the green cantera stone commonly found in Oaxaca's buildings, and the interior is in Neoclassical style. The altar features a bronze statue of Our Lady of the Assumption (Nuestra Señora de al Asunción) sculpted by Tadoini and cast in Italy during the Porfirio era,.
  The church and former monastery of Santo Domingo de Guzmán is located 4 blocks north of the Cathedral of Oaxaca. It was constructed between 1555 and 1666. It is divided into two parts: the church and the former living/working areas of the monks. The front of the church is Renaissance-style, in the central relief, Saint Dominic and Hippolytus of Rome are holding up the church. After La Reforma around 1860, the church was converted into a stable, which caused serious deterioration of the building. It was returned to devotional use at the end of the 19th century. The living and working areas were converted into barracks and officers´ quarters. In 1994, work began to convert this area as the Centro Cultural Santo Domingo.
  The Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad is located four blocks west of the Cathedral on Avenida Independencia. It is built between 1682 and 1697 by Father Fernando Méndez on a site where supposedly an image of the Virgin Mary appeared inside a box. It is of Baroque style finished in 1690. Its front is made of a reddish stone sculpted to look like a folding screen. In the back of the church is the Museo de la Basilica de Nuestra Señora de La Soledad that exhibits the Virgin's dresses, offering and small painting done in her honor. The statue of the Virgin of Solitude, crowned with a 2 kg solid gold crown studded with diamonds – was recently the subject of a theft. Over the years, the cloister has been converted into a correctional facility, a teacher's college and district attorney's office. Now it serves as the Municipal Palace. The building conserves a number of valuable items such as paintings, sculptures and religious vestments and a pipe organ dated 1686.
  The Church and ex-monastery of Del Carmen Alto belonged to the Carmelites, who established themselves here in 1696. The complex began as a hermitage built over the teocalli of Huaxyacac. The project was financed by Manuel Fernandez Fiallo. In the late 17th century, much of this space was occupied by a jail and barracks.
  Church and former monastery of St John of God (Templo y Exconvento de San Juan de Dios), Oaxaca's oldest church still standing, completed in 1703. This is where the first mass in Oaxaca was held in 1521.
  Church of San Felipe Neri The Church of San Felipe Neri is considered a classic example of Baroque with estipite (inverted truncated pyramid) columns from the end of the 18th century, and has a large gilded main altarpiece. While the church overall is Baroque, the portal contains other decorative elements as well. Benito Juárez married Margarita Maza here in 1841.
  Ex monastery of San Catalina was built in the second half of the 16th century by Dominican friar Hernando de Carvarcos, who also was responsible for the Santo Domingo de Guzmán monastery. In 1862, the monastery became a jail and at the end of the 19th century, the southern part became the Municipal Palace. Since 1976, it has been a hotel, called Hotel Camino Real.
  Church of the Company of Jesus (Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesús), located to the southwest of the Zócalo, was built by the Jesuits in 1579 and consecrated to Francis Xavier and the Immaculate Conception. The towers were destroyed by a series of earthquakes and never rebuilt. Inside the chapel is a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe with a prayer written in Spanish, English, Náhuatl as well as 12 other languages native to the state of Oaxaca, including 4 dialects of Zapotec.
caption: Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-P73", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2009:07:21 21:06:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2248", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:07:21 21:06:39", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2304", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1728", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4108"}