The Parish Church of Nuestra Senora De Los Dolores

Perched on a bench in the large square plaza in the center of town. I am on the side of the plaza facing directly in front of The Parish church of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. This church, though smaller than some in this country, is magnificent. Its construction was begun at the beginning of the 18th century. The style is in what is called Churrigueresque.

"Churrigueresque refers to a Spanish Baroque style of elaborate sculptural architectural ornament which emerged as a manner of stucco decoration in Spain in the late 1600s and was used up to about 1750, marked by extreme, expressive and florid decorative detailing, normally found above the entrance on the main facade of a building. Named for the Churriguera family of Salamanca..."[1]

Just as I wrote in the chapter about Zacatecas concerning its main church, this elaborately designed façade divides the front of the church into thirds with the Baroque carvings covering the middle third. The Dolores church's façade does not compare in intricacy and complexity to the one in Zacatecas but is similar enough to remind me of it. And, just as in the church in Zacatecas, the parts of the façade without any of the carvings is just a plain and unadorned pinkish stone. The carvings are not as "busy" as is the Zacatecas church and is more easily studied.

Rising from my bench I decided it was time to enter this magnificent church to have a look. But, before I did I dug out of my mochilla (backpack) one of the most famous and well known guidebooks that will remain nameless because of what I am about to say. This guidebook, in two different editions correctly pegs the façade of the outside of The Parish church of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores as 18th century Churrigueresque. However, this immensely popular guidebook goes on to say that the inside of the church is fairly plain.

To put it in the words of my dear wife when she walked into this church, "Those people (the editors of this fabulously popular guidebook) could not have stepped one foot into this church." And my wife is right.

This inside of this church is as elaborately intricate as is the church's façade. On the two walls, either side of the altar, are two examples of 18th century Churrigueresque inside a church rather than on the outside. It is a virtual repeat of the complexity of this late 18th century Baroque phase that is, to risk a hyperbole, overwhelming in design and effect. We sat there for a couple of hours trying to figure out just what church this guidebook was trying to describe.

We entered the church about12:30 p.m. on a Wednesday to see workers effecting a bit of restoration on the interior. This was a happy sight for a neglected historically significant church to this nation. The front of the church is what I love the most. The fantastic examples of 18th century Churrigueresque on these walls is accompanied by an altar that kept us staring for two hours. I've seen in Guanajuato something very similar to the altar in the Dolores Hidalgo church.

The altar takes on the appearance of Romanesque columns surrounding what might be the "Temple of God." At the top of the columns are Greek looking gold clusters-lots of gold. The crucified Christ is at the gold gilded base of the temple, Jesus' mother, Mary, is in the center behind glass and surrounded by more stone columns, and the risen, ascended Christ is about it all standing at what could be interpreted as the door to the temple of God. The inside of this church is far from being "fairly plain".

What perhaps, just maybe, what this guidebook was referring to was that the overall impression from the church, while impressive in architectural design, is rather dull and lifeless due to mass neglect. Though we were happy to see some renovation happening we wondered just how far the renovation would reach. Neglect was everywhere with water damage, mold stains, pieces of the ceiling had crumbled, and a lackluster chandelier. Everywhere there was dust, dirt, and a beautiful and significant church to Mexican heritage crying out for a good cleaning.

They were redoing the floors so we were blocked from looking closely at the gold gilded wall's carvings. We were about to study the wooden carved wall. Both walls had a huge mural next to them in need of some lighting. I don't know why catholic churches display their paintings so poorly. Cost is probably the answer and a good answer at that. Even the gigantic pipe organ in the choir loft in the back looked in need of help.

We could have sat there for hours contemplating all of this and discussing this in hushed whispers between us and would be there still were it not for the fact that without warning a funeral procession, complete with a casket whose lid they were about to pop, came up the aisle. They just began the service with a couple of gringos sitting in the very front pew and who obviously didn't belong with the party. So, we, as silently as possible and trying to pretend that we were not noticed, slipped out the back as more grieving family came stumbling into the church.

Thoroughly exhausted and need of refreshment, we went across the church plaza and back to the city's central plaza for some of Dolores Hidalgo's famous ice cream. After looking over the scores, and I mean scores of ice cream, we chose strawberries and cream. We had selections available to us ranging from cream of whiskey, tequila, beer, bacardi, avocado, corn, shrimp, pork rind, mole, and muffin-that's right, all ice cream!

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churrigueresque