Santa María Tonantzintla

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Templo de Santa María Tonantzintla

Templo de Santa María Tonantzintla.jpg

Patronage : Maria or Maria Immaculata
Order : Franciscan
Address: San Andrés Cholula, Puebla,
Mexico

Coordinates: 19 ° 1 ′ 47.6 ″  N , 98 ° 19 ′ 10.9 ″  W.

Santa María Tonantzintla is a church in San Andrés Cholula ( Cholula ), near Puebla in the central Mexican plateau. It is famous for its unique Mexican baroque decoration inside.

Santa María Tonantzintla is the third most visited church in Puebla. On November 11, 1933, it was declared a "Monumento histórico".

Surname

The nickname Tonantzintla comes from the náhuatl and refers to the old Mexican deity Tonantzin ; Tonantzintla means something like “Place of Our Dear Mother” or “Our Dear Mother”.

history

The interior with the main altar and dome

In the middle of the 16th century the indigenous indigenous population was so decimated by epidemics that the Spanish colonial rulers redistributed the land among the survivors. In 1556 the Spanish viceroy Luis de Velasco gave land in this area to a people who previously lived on the Poxtecatl hill and whose ancestors had worshiped the goddess Tonantzin. The actual village of Santa María Tonantzintla was founded in January 1587 by the viceroy Marquis Villamanrique and named after both Jesus' mother Mary and the Mexican goddess Tonantzin.

A first small chapel was built in the second half of the 16th century. It was looked after by Franciscan friars who came from the nearby convent of San Gabriel (today in San Pedro Cholula ) and a second monastery in today's San Andres Cholula. They began with the systematic conversion of the indigenous people. The cult of the earth and mother goddess Tonantzin was suppressed and replaced by the veneration of the Virgin Mary and the immaculate conception . However, the locals likely retained old fertility rituals.

In the second half of the 17th century work began on building the current church, which initially consisted of a single nave with a dome and a bell tower. In the 18th century a transept was added and the nave was extended towards the facade; the facade itself has been renewed.

The interior decoration began during the construction phase in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, it dragged on for even longer, but was largely finished in the 18th century. Individual works also took place in the 19th century, the vault of the choir was completed at the end of the 19th century.

description

“To see the importance of Indianization one must go to Santa María Tonantzintla. From the exterior it could resemble any other Mexican church. The same cupola, the same pleasant and colorful façade ... But when you come inside you find yourself in what is probably the most eccentric church of Christianity. "

“To see the importance of Indianization, one has to go to Santa María Tonantzintla. From the outside it looks like any other Mexican church. The same dome, the same pretty and colorful facade ... But when you go inside you find yourself in what is perhaps the most eccentric church in Christendom. "

- Aldous Huxley, 1933
Figure with headdress in Santa María Tonontzintla

The facade of the church is clad with partly “raw”, partly colored glazed azulejos .

The interior is shaped like a Latin cross with a dome and transept. It is equipped with a total of four carved altars made of cedar wood, which are consecrated, among others, to Saints Anthony of Padua and Francis of Assisi . The central figure of the Virgin Mary in the neo-baroque tabernacle of the apse was erected at the end of the 19th century, above it the Archangel Michael .

The lavish interior decorations of stucco and wood carvings that cover the entire walls and vaults are influenced by the famous Capilla del Rosario in Puebla (in the Templo de Santo Domingo). Although the model already shows some indigenous influences (e.g. figures of saints with a Mexican appearance), a much more popular Mexican tone is noticeable in comparison in Santa María Tonantzintla, among other things through the use of bright and cheerful colors that differ from the white and The golden basic harmony of the tendrils and ornaments stand out and complement them. Also striking are figures with Indian faces and numerous small heads looking at the viewer from the surging sea of ​​ornaments. Some wear plumed headdresses in the Indian style, while other heads seem to grow out of flowers. In addition to symbolic fruits traditionally associated with Christ such as grapes and pomegranates, experts have identified various indigenous flowers, plants and fruits in the decor , including cuitlacoches (a type of mushroom that grows on corn and is considered a delicacy in Mexico), and also guavas , sapotes , tejocots ( Crataegus mexicana ), capulines ( Prunus virginiana ), nanches ( Byrsonima crassifolia ), pumpkins and cocoa pods .

Evangelists and church fathers can be seen at important corner points , surrounded by musical figures (angels?), And by winged heads of cherubim and seraphim . The central themes of the decoration of the dome and transept are the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven and the Holy Trinity (according to Antonio Rubial García). The dove of the Holy Spirit hovers in the center of the dome.

The striking mixture of Christian-European ideas with Mexican-folk elements in the church of Tonantzintla has stimulated the imagination of various specialists in colonial art to come up with various theses. In the middle of the 20th century, Francisco de la Maza brought the rich world of figures in the stucco decor of the church in connection with the so-called Tlalocan , a paradisiacal place ruled by the rain and water god Tlaloc in the imagination of ancient Mexico, where the souls of a select few live. In 2016, Julio Glockner again pointed to an apparently syncretic juxtaposition of Christian and ancient Mexican symbolic worlds, which can be traced back to the religious ideas of the indigenous peoples before the Spanish colonization of Mexico.

In the atrium of the church you can see images of saints with natural hair. This goes back to a popular custom according to which girls whose requests were fulfilled by the saints cut their hair and sacrificed it in thanks.

  • Face with Indian features in Santa Maria Tonantzintla

  • portal

  • tower

See also

literature

  • Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I & II) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016 and Vol. 16, No. 2/2016, University of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Trnava, pp. 8–29, online at research.gate.net: " Part I " and " Part II " (viewed on May 18, 2019; English)
  • Julio Glockner (Ed.): Mirando el paraiso , Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, 1995/2011, Puebla (several texts by different authors)
  • Francisco (de la) Maza: El Tlalocan pagano de Teotihuacan y el Tlalocan cristiano de Tonantzintla . In: Homenaje a Alfonso Caso , Mexico, 1951
  • Francisco (de la) Maza: Tonantzintla paraiso . In: Sembradores de amistad , Year VIII, Vol. XX, No. 164, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, June 1965 (both texts also in: Julio Glockner (ed.): Mirando el paraiso , Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, 1995/2011, Puebla)
  • Pedro Rojas: Tonantzintla , Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Col. Arte, No. 2, Mexico, 1956
  • Pedro Rojas: Los estucos de Tonantzintla: sus sentidos teologicos y de ofrenda . In: Julio Glockner (ed.): Mirando el Paraiso , Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Puebla, 2011
  • Antonio Rubial Garcia: Santa María Tonantzintla, un pueblo, un templo , Universidad Iberoamericana, Comision Puebla V Centenario, Puebla, 1991
  • Gordon Wasson: Santa María Tonantzintla y Piltzintli . In: Julio Glockner (ed.): Mirando el Paraiso , Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Puebla, 2011

Web links

Commons : Santa Maria Tonantzintla  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Youtube video of "Santa María Tonantzintla" , seen on May 18, 2019 (Spanish)
  • Santa María Tonantzintla on corazondepuebla.com.mx (seen May 18, 2019; Spanish)
  • Tonantzintla and Acatepec on "www.mexikolinks.de" , seen on May 18, 2019 (German)
  • Information on Iglesia de Santa María Tonantzintla on "www.marcopolo.de" , seen on May 18, 2019 (German)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Anonymous, undated : Santa María Tonantzintla , entry about the church on the tourist website "Corazón de Puebla": www.corazondepuebla.com.mx/descubre/santa-maria-tonantzintla/ (without Imprint, accessed May 22, 2019)
  2. ↑ Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, pp. 8–29, here: pp. 10 and 12
  3. ↑ a b c Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, pp. 8–29, here: p. 11
  4. ↑ Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, pp. 8–29, here: p. 16
  5. ↑ a b c Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, pp. 8–29, here: p. 12
  6. ↑ a b c d Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) , in: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, here: p. 10
  7. ↑ a b Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, pp. 8–29, here: p. 9
  8. ^ Aldous Huxley: Oltre La Baia del Messico , Franco Muzzio Editore, Padua, 1934/1994; here after: Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, p. 17
  9. ↑ Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, pp. 8–29, here: pp. 25–26
  10. ↑ a b Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, pp. 8–29, here: p. 25
  11. ↑ Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part II) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 2/2016, pp. 8–29, here: p. 29
  12. ↑ a b c Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part II) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 2/2016, pp. 8–29, here: p. 29
  13. ↑ Here for: Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I) . In: Ethnologia actualis , Vol. 16, No. 1/2016, pp. 8–29, here: p. 19
  14. ↑ Julio Glockner: The Barroque Paradise of Santa María Tonantzintla (Part I & II). In: Ethnologia actualis. Vol. 16, No. 1/2016 and Vol. 16, No. 2/2016, pp. 8–29