Mexico. Santiago Atzacoalco. Where the waters are held back

Now lost in the sprawl of Mexico City north of the Basilica of Guadalupe, Atzacoalco once enjoyed a unique place in history. Named in the Aztec Codex Siguenza, Atzacoalco was a lakeside community, the site of an ancient barrier or dike that held back the brackish waters from Lake Texcoco. The site was employed during the Conquest by Hernán Cortés to house the boats for his historic assault on Tenochtitlan (las Atarazanas)

An early Franciscan mission dedicated to Santiago was established there in 1531, later ceded to Carmelites (1586)  and then to the Augustinians (1607?). Finally, it was secularized in 1750.

The 16th century church front was later blocked by a new, inappropiate, facade although the old lateral entry remains.

The Cross

Formerly in the cemetery but now in plaza?, this venerable carved cross is similar to the Guadalupe cross in style (see previous post), altho smaller, and possibly by the same hand. 

The beautifully modeled, melancholy head of Christ stands at crossing with two crowns; one on the brow and another, larger, limper one draped around the neck of the cross, over a priest's stole. 

Streaming Wounds with large spikes occupy the outer arms as at Guadalupe.

The finely carved and integrated composition of shaft reliefs include a banded pillar with rooster atop and below, a substantial chalice with the Host emerging, here inscribed with a cross and IHS initials.  Sun & Moon can be seen on the sides along with several other Instruments & Passion symbols, including a scimitar severing Malchus' ear.

Abbreviated or damaged petaled finials cap the arms.  

Old photographs show a florid INRI crest with pomegranates and cherubs heads, as at Guadalupe.  This is now missing.

©2025 Richard D. Perry. color photo by the author

Mexican Crosses: The Guadalupe Cross

Probably the best known and the most ornate of Mexican stone crosses, the magnificent Guadalupe cross, now occupies pride of place in the museum of the Basilica at Tepeyac, the heart of the national shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe. A 1709 painting by José de Arellano shows the cross mounted in front of the newly built Basilica.

This seminal cross, carved from warm gray limestone and now set on a high, modern base, probably dates from the mid-1500s. It is oval in section and is monolithic save for the inscribed placard at its head.

Christ’s Face at the crossing is quite small although finely drawn in low relief, and wears an abbreviated crown of Thorns and a forked beard. A puffy, necklace style Crown is draped around the foreshortened neck and superimposed on reliefs of liturgical Stoles with decorative tassels that wrap around the arms on either side.

Beyond these, at the end of each arm, elongated streams of blood exude from Wounds impaled with large stone Spikes that extend at an angle in high relief. The arms taper towards the ends, terminating in modest corollas of abbreviated, petaled finials.

 

A full complement of Passion symbols is carved in relief around the shaft of the cross. In front, a third Wound in the same style is emblazoned above a Chalice from which emerges the inscribed Host. Above, delicately carved sun, moon and stars flank a festooned Column with a Rooster atop. A crossed Spear and Corn plant flank the Chalice on one side with a Reed, or hyssop, on the other.

The rather overbearing INRI plaque atop the cross is probably a later addition, notable for its intricately carved pomegranates and cherubs’ heads

While the highly skilled sculptor of this famous cross is unknown, its direct influence can be seen in other crosses of the region, notably at nearby Atzacoalco, and at Huichapan and Tlahuelilpa among others in the adjacent state of Hidalgo 

text and images ©2023/2025 Richard D. Perry