The Dome, Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral
The Dome ended with adaptations to the Ortiz de Castro project. Inside, the Assumption of the Virgin was also represented (Rafael Ximeno y Planes, 1810). The dome that exists today, is the work of Manuel Tolsá, and octagonal drum, raised to the center of the cruise, on four columns and topped by a lantern. The current windows are by Matías Goeritz. In the fire of 1967, caused by a short circuit in the Altar of Forgiveness, the painting of the Assumption was consumed.
Tolsá could take advantage of the heavy dome released in 1666 to build the need to make a new one altogether. Both structures almost decide one by opinion. However, there is no data that. Leaving the hypothesis raised, we will briefly describe this magnificent dome that constitutes one of the most spiritual expressions of art in Mexico.
The drum is octagonal and moves on a cubic whose angles show balustrades to the outside of the scallops. The drum is a structure supported by Ionic pilasters every two to each end of the sides of the octagon that forms it and to the center are columns of the same order with the smooth shafts, which form the windows of the dome. On the Ionic capitals of pilasters and columns runs an entablature whose frieze is enhanced in the closing of each window to support a curvilinear topped by posters with pontifical shields. Above the columns there are auctions, next to pediments, which hold flames, and serve the balustrades that finish off the drum.
The half orange moves a little above these balustrades on a thick molding, a bull looks a thick band that surrounds the octagon that constitutes the ring of the dome. From the angles of said octagon, strips appear that divide the dome into sections. Each cloth of the same one is formed by two lateral strips and a central triangle, broken to its middle, to shelter a circle in relief. The recessed parts of this ornament were covered with light green tiles, which over time have acquired a patina that barely distinguishes them from the quarry in which the work is carved.
The angular girdles, when they reach the top, gracefully twist in a countercurve on which the great ring that holds the flashlight seems to rest. This is already circular and on their faces, between the belt and the belt, it shows bent garlands, similar to those hanging between each strip: these, topped in scrolls, support a vigorously molded platform. On the girdles there are pilasters topped by planters, which support a circular balustrade that surrounds the lantern ring.
Move this in a circle lower than the ring, so that there is a scope around it. It is supported by pilasters that show on its face a relief of intertwined leaves and, in addition, each one has a highlight in its lower part that serves to support the structure. Among the aforementioned pilasters, eight elongated windows with half-point enclosures are opened, crowned by a cornice with little projecting moldings. The pilasters extend over said molding to support the ring of the cupulin and each one is topped not by capital, but by a scroll-shaped ornament with flaps. In the spaces between the molding and the extension of these pilasters, portholes are seen with stained glass.
The ring of the cupulín comes to be constituted by a molding, a simple frieze and a veiled cornice. The cupulín, gracefully cant, is divided by strips into eight sections, each of which is covered by tiles of more intense tones than the others we have talked about. Top the cupulin a base that holds a large flame. Symbolically, the artist has wished to place on this site, not the cross that was already seen in the towers, but the flame of divine love that is constantly burning over the heart of the most important church in Mexico.
Great conception of that dome. She gives the bell, the seal, the mark to the Cathedral of Mexico. No other, in any other church, can be compared. It may resemble, as we have already noted, other French domes. That is only in detail, but not in harmony, in proportion, in elegance. Proportion disproportionate to some extent, since the flashlight is almost higher than the same spherical cap. But there is the claw of the genius who builds this dome by providing it, not for herself, but according to the proportions of the great church that she had to cover and that she had to decorate. Having made it lower would have been tantamount not to dome. The old heavy structure of the 17th century was enough. In this dome Tolsá fully demonstrates his genius as an artist, rather than in those cold palaces,
The Towers
We have previously made a detailed history of the construction of the towers of the Cathedral of Mexico. We are now going to study them from their artistic point of view because they are, not to doubt, the most original and grandiose towers that any cathedral can hold, within the time they were built.
The model for the construction was the lower body of the tower on the east side, completed since the 17th century. Indeed, if we analyze it in detail, we see that its structure adheres to the classical conception, in such a way that we would almost say that it is a herreriana tower. It is a body simply stacked with four Doric pilasters on each side, resting on a basement. Its entablamiento is complete: architrave, frieze, with drops in the triglyphs and cornice widely flown. On each face there are five bells; a large one in the center, above which there is clearly a blank space in which the shield of the royal arms of Spain was formerly. In the entrecalles of the threshing side piles there are two other bells, one above the other, so that, together, the first body has twenty bells, apart from the big bell that was supposed to hang in the center. In the next section we see what were the bells that were hung in these bell towers. Each bell tower is limited by a stone balustrade that was undoubtedly placed at the end, when the church was completed.
The second body of the tower shows, first of all, a balustrade that surrounds the entire cornice of the lower body, with perillions in the pilasters corresponding to the lower pilasters.
We have said that the architect who solved the problem of the towers was José Damián Ortiz de Castro, and in the resolution of such bodies and the auction we see the genius of this extraordinary architect. The problem arose in difficult erect, because the first body was quite heavy, almost to support two more, as in the cathedral of Puebla. But then the towers would have been disproportionately high, as are those of the angelopolitan cathedral. Then build a second body that seeks to lighten as much as possible and a shot that corresponds almost to a third body in its height. We go in parts: the second body is constituted by pilasters formed of a nucleus and two attached pilasters of Ionic order that sustain a also Ionic entablature. But instead of being a compact structure like that of the first body, Ortiz de Castro imagines an ochavada structure, inscribed within the rectangle formed by the four pilasters, and achieves it by means of isolated pilasters that offer a bell with a semicircular arch in the part low, and a window at the top.
The division between these two architectural members is constituted by a stone strip that extends horizontally inside the pilasters until it finds its companion in the other space, and so on. To ensure stability, it sets steel belts that link the outer pilasters with the inner body. By such a system he manages to build a second body that, while continuing the style of the lower body, is lighter and offers the tower an openwork aspect from various points of view.
The balustrade, corresponding to that of the first body, with its pilasters to the axes of the inferior pilasters and with bases that correspond to the angular pilasters, on which large sculptures that complete the ornament of the ornaments are seen, are visible on the large cornisamiento. towers, giving it an ascending ornamentation scale that is within the most perfect logic. We have already talked about these statues and their authors in the historical part. We must describe the auction. On a kind of attic, with oval portholes towards the faces of the towers and windows in the angles, between inverted brackets that seem to hold the auction, large elliptical and vigorously treated bells are displaced. Its edge, indeed, It is constituted by a great molding and the inverted brackets correspond to bands that divide the surface of the bells.
Such girdles end in another great molding that serves as an impost to hold four large oval medallions with a vertical axis, flanked by garlands topped with florons. The bell extends to the top and has a semiovoid widening at the end with the edge lowered in curves and highlighted by an angular molding. In this auction the belts of the body of the bell are extended until ending in its center, which holds a large stone sphere topped by a cross. We have made the history of these great spheres with their crosses, but it is good to point out that the stone cross has no iron soul,
Such are the towers of this cathedral, solemn towers but full of spirit, of personality, that do not resemble any other as we have said, finished off in those two gigantic bells that seem to ring in unison with the bronzes that hang in the bells, as if the whole church wanted to become uniform in a peal in which even the stone had become sound. And so they call our hearts every time we see them, every time we cross in front of the square, when we can’t stop admiring.
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral
The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heavens (Spanish: Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de la Santísima Virgen María a los cielos) 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 (Zócalo) 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: Gothic, Baroque, Churrigueresque, Neoclassical, among others. Same situation experienced different ornaments, paintings, sculptures and furniture in the interior.
Its realization meant a point of social cohesion, because it involved the same ecclesiastical authorities, government authorities, different religious brotherhoods as many generations of social groups of all classes.
It is also, as a consequence of the influence of the Catholic Church on public life, that the building was intertwined with events of historical significance for the societies of New Spain and independent Mexico. To mention a few, there are the coronation of Agustín de Iturbide and Ana María Huarte as emperors of Mexico by the President of the Congress; the preservation of the funeral remains of the aforementioned monarch; burial until 1925 of several of the independence heroes such as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and José María Morelos; the disputes between liberals and conservatives caused by the separation of the church and the state in the Reform; the closure of the building in the days of the Cristero War; the celebrations of the bicentennial of independence, among others.
The cathedral faces south. The approximate measurements of this church are 59 metres (194 ft) wide by 128 metres (420 ft) long and a height of 67 metres (220 ft) to the tip of the towers. It consists of two bell towers, a central dome, three main portals. It has four façades which contain portals flanked with columns and statues. It has five naves consisting of 51 vaults, 74 arches and 40 columns. The two bell towers contain a total of 25 bells.
The tabernacle, adjacent to the cathedral, contains the baptistery and serves to register the parishioners. There are five large, ornate altars, a sacristy, a choir, a choir area, a corridor and a capitulary room. Fourteen of the cathedral’s sixteen chapels are open to the public. Each chapel is dedicated to a different saint or saints, and each was sponsored by a religious guild. The chapels contain ornate altars, altarpieces, retablos, paintings, furniture and sculptures. The cathedral is home to two of the largest 18th-century organs in the Americas. There is a crypt underneath the cathedral that holds the remains of many former archbishops. The cathedral has approximately 150 windows.
Over the centuries, the cathedral has suffered damage. A fire in 1967 destroyed a significant part of the cathedral’s interior. The restoration work that followed uncovered a number of important documents and artwork that had previously been hidden. Although a solid foundation was built for the cathedral, the soft clay soil it is built on has been a threat to its structural integrity. Dropping water tables and accelerated sinking caused the structure to be added to the World Monuments Fund list of the 100 Most Endangered Sites. Restoration work beginning in the 1990s stabilized the cathedral and it was removed from the endangered list in 2000.