Jalisco. Santa Ana Tepetitlan: the Hospital Chapel

Adding to our ongoing series on the churches and chapels of the Jaliscan baroque in the vicinity of Guadalajara, we visit the colonial hospital chapel at Santa Ana Tepetitlan.

Founded as a visita of the convento of San Francisco in Guadalajara, the chapel is located in the community of Zapopan south of the city.  As at nearby San Agustín, while the main church has been virtually rebuilt and lost much of its original character, the hospital chapel has survived with its colonial character intact.

The imposing entry, set against a broad church front and unevenly fashioned from honey colored stone, is currently in need of restoration. Simply but handsomely styled, the doorway and choir window are framed by paneled jambs with plain Doric capitals. 

Apart from the statues of Peter and Paul flanking the choir window, carved, foliated keystones provide the only other ornament. 

 

images courtesy of José Alfredo Alcántar Gutiérrez

As with some other hospital chapels in the region, the Santa Ana Capilla boasts a long, wide nave divided by slender arcades, here roofed by a beamed ceiling—rare in the region. Surprisingly the sanctuary is almost as wide as the nave.

text © 2019  Richard D. Perry.  
color photographs by José Alfredo Alcántar Gutiérrez  and Wikimedia

see our other posts on the Jaliscan baroque:  Santa Cruz de las Flores,  San Sebastianito,  Santa Anita Atlixtac;  Santa Cruz El Grande; San Juan de Ocotán; San Agustín, and the churches around Lake Cajititlan;