Gothic church, first visit in 25 years

[armando_m]

Altough I have lived in Guadalajara for 25 years I have never visited this church,
looking for photo opportunities I visited on Monday, it was a holiday , and it worked OK to avoid a crowd in church as it would have been on Sunday.

A bit of history ... The construction is noted as the most significant "neo-gothic" building in Mexico, it was designed by an Italian architect. The first stone was set in the late 1800's, construction progress was interrupted multiple times, due to lack of peace times, prosecution of catholic faith and lack of funding to name of few reasons. The church was completed until the early 1970's, during all this time 3 different architects viewed after the project, the church is know as " Templo Expiatorio".

I came to the site around 10AM, this worked OK as the sun was coming through the windows and making everything very colorful.

The outside of the church is not that great, certainly did not look to me as great as the interior.

Here are the pics:

Facade


Inside View from the back, panorama of 2 horizontal pics


Side view of the altar


Detail of the window


Comments and/or criticism is welcome.

Thanks for reading!

[LightBright]

What a beautiful church. I agree the inside is very unique. Great photos armando

[Shebang]

Wow -- this is gorgeous!

[armando_m]

thanks for the comments

[byjamesderuvoDHQ]

Great lighting, although I think some shadow would've given it some more drama. But it's a gorgeous church and you captured the cavernous of it nicely.

Another idea would be to get a GIGAPAN and image the entire cathedral in amazing detail.

[GB1]

I think they're excellent shots and very informative. The stained glass one is a bit tilted but they all tell exactly what this place is like. Very nice!

But a Gothic church in Mexico..? I would never have dreamed that in a million years.

Btw Armando, your English sounds native.

g

[BlueRob]

Originally Posted by GB1

But a Gothic church in Mexico..? I would never have dreamed that in a million years.

g

Nice shots there Armando! I specially like the interior shots.

I have to say that here in Mexico we have the privilege to have a quite extensive diversity of the most known styles of architecture, in certain states you could find several styles scattered by only few miles.
I`m going to sound as a tourist guide but If any of you guys have the chance to visit Mexico one of this days I promise you wont be disappointed...guaranteed.
Two cities I considered a most see are Zacatecas, Guanajuato if you want to see modern architecture, if you are more into ruins site seeing, go further south and the coastal line of the Caribbean where you will also find awesome beaches to die for.

[armando_m]

James, I'll take a look at the gigapan site, thanks!

G, the window was taken from a side, I did not want to be standing in the middle of the center aisle, and it ended up being tilted in all directions, the image was realigned with capture nx2 to get flat horizontal lines, i think that's how it looks better

Bluerob, the outside is not that great, specially in comparison to the inside of the building. Saludos!

[barb_48]

Wow! I have never seen such a beautiful church, thanks for sharing.