Guanajuato Revisited Part 2 of 17: The Templo San Diego & Ex-Convento Dieguino

Templo San Diego de Alcalá stands across from Jardin Union. In fact, Plaza Jardin Union used to be called Plaza San Diego before the it was transformed into a lush garden in the late 19th century. Like many old churches in Mexico, Templo San Diego was built in a mixture of styles over the centuries. It was once a part of the structures of the Ex-Convento Dieguino, a 17th century Franciscan monastery complex. 

A bronze troubadour stands outside the entrance of the Templo. He symbolizes the many wandering musicians that gather in this spot before they set off through El Centro (the center of the old town). We encountered a number of them during our walk. In the first photo of Part 1 of this series, the smiling fellow in 16th century clothes was one of these musicians.

The Templo's Churrigueresque facade was carved from pink sandstone. The facade was carved in the flamboyant style of late Baroque. I was a bit puzzled by this at first. It was one of many oddities I encountered while touring this complex. The Franciscans, particularly the ones who came to evangelize in Mexico, were noted for the simplicity of their lifestyle and their architecture. 

In fact, the subset of the Franciscan Order who built the Ex-Convento Dieguino and Templo San Diego de Alcalá were called Franciscanos Descalzos (Barefoot Franciscans) because they tended to go about barefoot or in sandals at most. They were also known as Dieguinos (a derivative of San Diego) and were followers of the Franciscan reformer San Pedro de Alcántara.

Then, I learned that the original complex had been destroyed in a great flood in the 18th century and the Templo had been rebuilt by a rich Spanish mine owner with more sumptuous tastes. But all that comes much later in the story of this small but exquisite example of Spanish colonial architecture. 

This wooden door is another example of Churrigueresque. Use of lush foliage in this style is typical. Often, almost every square inch of available space will be covered by floral decorations, with the faces of cherubs and various animals peeping out.  

After silver was discovered in the mountains around Guanajuato in the mid-1540s, a mining boom started. Although the first church was built in 1555, there were no monasteries in the area for more than 100 years. Finally, in 1663, four Dieguinos arrived with plans to build a Franciscan monastery with an attached church. However, for reasons that remain unclear, Spanish King Felipe IV withdrew his approval for the project. Things then remained in limbo for three years.

The Nave

View of the altar from the rear of the nave. During the 18th century, the advent of the Enlightenment and its emphasis on rationality began to displace all things Baroque. Thus, when Templo San Diego was remodeled, it was done in the more severe Neo-Classic style then becoming popular. The tall, undecorated columns along the walls are an example of Neo-Classic.

The Franciscan monastery project was finally given the go-ahead in 1667, after Felipe IV was succeeded by King Carlos II. Completed in 1694, it was three times as large as it is now. The complex included Templo San Diego, with a cloister surrounding it to house and provide workspace for 25 friars and 9 poor, orphaned or abandoned children. Another part of the monastery, the Templo del Tercer Orden de San Francisco, once stood on Templo San Diego's left. In front was Plaza San Diego.

View toward the rear, with the organ and choir loft. To the right are the stairs leading to the pulpit. In Mexico's colonial-era churches, pulpits are placed on one side or the other of the nave, rather than facing the pews from the altar area. This placement is because, until the 1500s, there were no pews! Everybody stood during the services for the first 1500 years that churches existed. The pulpits' placement probably made it easier to address large groups, who could easily gather below to listen.

The installation of pews happened during the Protestant Reformation. The lengthy sermons the Protestants liked were tiring so people wanted to be able to sit down. Eventually the Catholics followed suit and installed their own pews. However, the placement of pulpits in the Catholic churches continued to be on the nave sides through the colonial period and even into the Republic era.

A pipe organ is on a balcony on the nave's right side. The origins of the instrument called an organ dates back to 246 BC, when a man called Ctesibius of Alexandria came up with a water-regulated mechanical flute-playing device called a hydraulis. In 90 BC, Romans such as Cicero mentioned its use during banquets, games and circuses throughout the Mediterranean. 

In 757 AD, Byzantine Emperor Constantius made a gift of an organ to the Frankish King Pepin the Short. Pepin promptly hired a Venetian to teach students to build organs and their use quickly spread. Around 900 AD organs began to be used in churches for ceremonial purposes and, by the 1400s, they were well-established in monasteries, cathedrals, and other religious institutions throughout Europe.

A statue of San Francisco holding a skull is in a side-niche of the nave. He was the founder of the religious organization known as the Franciscan Order, the first of its kind to begin evangelization of Nueva España (Mexico). San Francisco (1181-1226) is best known for images in which he is surrounded by animals, which he loved and to whom he sometimes preached. 

However, paintings and statues of him holding a skull are also common. He died at age 44, a relatively young age, and was aware of his coming demise. San Francisco often placed a skull on his breakfast table as a reminder that life is ephemeral and death is not to be feared.

San Martin de Porres, the first Black saint born in the Americas. Another oddity I encountered at Templo San Diego was this statue of a saint who was a member of the Dominican Order, a great rival of the Franciscans. San Martin de Porres was born in 1579 in Lima, Peru, the child of a Spanish nobleman and the freed mulatto slave (Black and indigenous) who was his mistress. Prejudice against this background made it difficult for Martin to became a Dominican, but he succeeded. 

His presence at the Templo may be due to some of the similarities between San Francisco and San Martin. Both are often depicted in the company of animals and both were devoted to poverty, simplicity, and service to others. San Martin de Porres is usually shown holding a broom, symbolizing his belief that all work is sacred. He died in 1639 but, while his saintliness was recognized in his own time, this was not made official until 1962. 

Wooden column from one of the retablos of the original church. A retablo stands behind an altar and contains niches for paintings and statues.  This was part of the original Baroque interior of the Templo and may have been carved in 1709 to honor San Antonio de Padua. The spiraling Solomonic column is decorated with floral images and shows traces of gold sheathing. It was discovered recently in the campanario (bell tower) of the church. 

Less than a century after the monastery's completion, disaster struck. In 1780, a great flood cascaded through Guanajuato, destroying much of the city. The channel of the deep arroyo along which the city had been built became clogged with mining waste and other debris and the catastrophe was probably inevitable. The Templo's nave was filled with the floating cadavers of humans and animals and the Dieguinos' cloister was completely destroyed. 

Museo Ex-Convento Dieguino

Carole walks through the ruins of the old cloister. The Museo Dieguino can be accessed from the alley to the right of the Templo. From there you descend into an eerie underground world. After the great flood, the level of the street was raised as much as 6 meters (18ft) with tunnels left to allow water to pass through and thus avoid future floods. The tunnels now serve as underground streets.

The Templo San Diego was rebuilt at the new level and the upper level of the cloister now became its ground floor, with cells and offices for the friars. The lower level of the cloister was left buried deep underground. The reconstruction of the Templo and its cloister took about four years. 

This was a remarkable feat given that the original structures needed more than 30 years to complete. The rapidity of the reconstruction was due to the intervention of Antonio de Obregón y Alconcer, first Conde de Valenciana. He was one of the richest men in Guanajuato and his mines produced 60% of the 18th century world's silver. Apparently, money was no object.

The walls and arches still show some of the painted decorations. The ruins of the cloister that you see above were left underground and only excavated by archeologists in the 20th century. The original monastery contained a special door for pilgrims, an atrium, and 2 aljibes (underground water tanks) including one in the cloister and another in the patio.

Ironically, the effect of the long burial of the cloister was to preserve all this for modern visitors. Wandering through these shadowy ruins, I could almost hear the quiet shuffling of sandals and bare feet, as long-vanished friars made their way along ancient stone walls and through the archways to their monastic cells. 

An eight-pointed star and a heart decorate two sides of a pillar. The symbols apparently had great meaning to the Franciscan friars who painted them. However, there was no explanatory sign so they were as much a mystery to me as the hieroglyphics in an Egyptian tomb. 

The Templo San Diego and the surviving monastic structures continued to undergo changes during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Templo's interior was remodeled, replacing the Churrigueresque features with the newly popular Neo-Classic style. Various small side chapels were added, along with some of the statues and paintings we see today.

Carole contemplates the well over one of the cloister's two aljibes. The biggest changes to the monastic complex began in 1860, the result of the Liberal Party victory over the Conservatives in the Reform War of 1858-61. The war was fought over the implementation of the Constitution of 1857, which was aimed at limiting the political, economic, and cultural power of Mexico's Catholic Church. 

At the time, the Church controlled as much as 40% of the arable land in Mexico and completely dominated the education system. This left the vast majority of Mexicans poor and illiterate. The Church protected its privileges through a separate court system it controlled. In the Liberal view, the Church was a regressive force in society. Its power at stake, the Church allied with the Conservatives and threatened to excommunicate civil servants who implemented the new Constitution. 

The opposite side of the well. The spill-over tank in the foreground may have been used to wash clothing or other items like dishes. It's not clear what function the poor, orphaned, or abandoned children played in the monastery. Almost certainly they were put to work around the complex and probably labored over the clothes or dishes washed in this tank.

The three-year Reform War resulted in Liberal victory under the leadership of Benito Juarez. However, at the Conservatives' invitation, French Emperor Napoleon III invaded Mexico in 1862, overthrew its Republic, and installed Austrian Archduke Maximillian as Emperor of Mexico. After a five-year occupation, the French were finally expelled in 1867 by Juarez' forces, with American assistance.

A small art gallery occupies some of the old cloister's rooms. I found this display of abstract art yet another oddity of the complex. The paintings were in no way representative of the place and I couldn't quite reconcile its atmosphere with this sort of art. 

With his final victory over the French and his Conservative enemies, Benito Juarez was able to implement the Constitution. Vast properties of the Church were expropriated and sold. Juarez' idea was to create a broad class of small farmers, similar to the U.S. However, in the end, the big hacienda owners ended up with most of the former Church land. They had money and the government was broke after the long struggle with the French. 

Monasteries in Mexico, including this one, had been disbanded during the early reforms. Except for the Templo, the structures of Ex-Convento Dieguino were demolished in 1861and replaced by the Hotel Emporio. These included the cloister and the Templo del Tercer Orden de San Francisco . In 1873, the hotel was itself torn down and construction began on Teatro Juarez. The theatre was inaugurated in 1903 by President Porfirio Diaz.

This completes Part 2 of my Guanajuato Revisited series. I hope you enjoyed it and, if so, you will leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. Please remember to include your email address if you leave a question in the Comments so that I can respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim