A capilla abierta or “open chapel” is considered to be one of the most distinct

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

construction forms. Mostly built in the 16th century during the early colonial period, the construction was basically an

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

or open presbytery containing an altar, which opened onto a large

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmona ...

or plaza. While some state that these were constructed by friars because the native peoples of that epoch were afraid to enter the dark confines of European-style churches, the more likely reasons for their construction were that they allowed the holding of

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

for enormous numbers of people and the arrangement held similarities to the ''

teocalli A ''teocalli'' (Nahuatl: "God-house") is a Mesoamerican pyramid surmounted by a temple. The pyramid is terraced, and some of the most important religious rituals in Pre-Columbian Mexico took place in the temple at the top of the pyramid. The famou ...

s'' or sacred precincts of pre-Hispanic temples. While open chapels can be found in other places in

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and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, their systematic use in monasteries and other religious complexes, leading to a regularization of architectural elements, is only found in Mexico.

Structure

The capilla abierta was an open apse or presbytery of a reduced size, located on the ground floor or the first floor (which allowed for greater visibility) and opening onto a large atrium or plaza. The main idea is to allow the large number of people to congregate in front of a single altar. In Mexico, three types of open chapels came to be used: the "salon" or "mosque" type found in Cholula and

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

, distinguished by its front

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

with

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

arches; the "portico" type which was a

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

area in front of the

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

; and the "balcony" type, located on the upper floor or roof. Portico style chapels can be seen in

Tlalmanalco Tlalmanalco is a municipality located in the far south-eastern part of the State of Mexico. The municipal seat and second largest town in the municipality is the town of Tlalmanalco de Velázquez The name is from the Nahuatl language, meaning “f ...

Atlatlahucan Atlatlahucan (from the Nahuatl word ) is a city in the Mexican state of Morelos. The name means ''Place of red or brown water'', and today the water is stored in a type of cistern called a ''jagüey''. To the north is the State of Mexico, south ...

and

Cempoala Cempoala or Zempoala (Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly ...

, with the best known of the balcony type being found in

Acolman Acolman de Nezahualcóyotl is a town and municipality located in the northern part of State of Mexico, part of the Greater Mexico City area, just north of the city proper. According to myth, the first man was placed here after being taken out of ...

Mexico State The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from th ...

. Almost all open chapels were part of a larger structure, whether it was the main church or the cloister of the monastery. One significant exception is the chapel in

Actopan, Hidalgo ''Actopan'' ( Otomi: Ma’yüts’i) is a city and one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo, in central-eastern Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 280.1 km. It is crossed by the federal road that runs from Mexico City to Nuevo Laredo a ...

. The most important feature of the open chapels was to allow the largest number of people possible to congregate in front of a single altar and have that altar visible to all. This is one reason why all capilla abiertas were built facing a large atrium or other open area. One of the most obvious features for visibility was to have the chapel located on an upper floor, such as the one located in Tlahueilpa. However, other architectural designs appear with this goal in mind. In

San Juan Teposcolula San Juan Teposcolula is a town and municipality in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, often known simply as Teposcolula. The name Teposcolula means “next to the twist in copper”. It is part of the Teposcolula District in the center of the Mixteca Re ...

, the

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es holding up the roof were placed so that they did not block the view from any point in the atrium. In some cases, the open chapel inspired designs for covered churches. The cathedral for

Pátzcuaro Pátzcuaro () is a city and municipality located in the state of Michoacán. The town was founded sometime in the 1320s, at first becoming the capital of the Purépecha Empire and later its ceremonial center. After the Spanish took over, Vasco de ...

was conceived of by

Vasco de Quiroga Vasco de Quiroga (1470/78 – 14 March 1565) was the first bishop of Michoacán, Mexico, and one of the judges (''oidores'') in the second Real Audiencia of Mexico – the high court that governed New Spain – from January 10, 1531, to April 16, ...

as a center for the main altar with five

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

s surrounding it, so that anyone sitting anywhere in any nave could see the altar without problems. In reality, it would be five churches facing a single altar. However, only one nave was ever built. Another interesting church design with visibility in mind is the Royal Chapel of San Gabriel de Cholula. The chapel has a square floor plan with seven naves with seven sections each, separated by octagonal pillars. The inspiration for this design is the

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

mosque. This design was also used at the Church of San Francisco de los Naturales in San Francisco de Mexico, which has since been destroyed. This same need may have also been the reason behind the later construction of single-nave churches with no side chapels later in the colonial period.

Purpose

The open chapel was predominantly used during the very early colonial period (16th century) in central Mexico, then called

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

. Several examples appear in

Cuzco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...

, at the churches of Santo Domingo, La Merced and San Jeronimo, but their systematic appearance and regularization of appearance appears only in Mexico. Some sources state that the capilla abiertas were constructed because the native populations in the 16th century were too afraid to enter the dark confines of European style churches. However, a number of these chapels predate their traditional church counterparts, sometimes by decades or more. The most likely reason for their construction was the fact that in the early colonial period, there was an enormous number of indigenous people and few friars and priests to evangelize and say Mass. The need for these chapels is mentioned by

Toribio de Benavente Toribio of Benavente, O.F.M. (1482, Benavente, Spain – 1565, Mexico City, New Spain), also known as Motolinía, was a Franciscan missionary who was one of the famous Twelve Apostles of Mexico who arrived in New Spain in May 1524. His publishe ...

who writes that they are needed along with large atriums to hold numbers of people who could not fit inside the church on Sundays and during festivals. During the slow times, such as mid-week, the main church was used. Another advantage the open chapel/atrium arrangement afforded was that it had similarities to the old teocallis, or sacred precincts of pre-Hispanic temples. The idea of an open chapel to serve multitudes was not completely new, as there are precedents on the

Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. Chapels with altars were constructed in

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

s in Spain so that on feast and market days all could attend

. What was new was its systematic use leading to a type of regularized architecture for this type of construction and its integration into monasteries and other religious complexes. The chapels represent one of the first steps of the cultural integration after the

Spanish Conquest The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...

. As the seat of his dominions,

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...

chose

Cuernavaca Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D. The na ...

. Immediately he initiated the construction of a palace over an old tribute collection center and nearby the construction of a church with an open chapel. The open chapel of San Jose is located next to the

Cuernavaca Cathedral The Cuernavaca Cathedral ( es, Catedral de la Asunción de María) is the Roman Catholic church architecture, church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cuernavaca, Diocese of Cuernavaca, located in the city of Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. The church ...

. This chapel originally was much bigger than what remains today. The open chapel here was used not only for Mass but also for plays, music, dance and other events designed to explain and reinforce the faith.

Examples of open chapels

The open chapel is considered to be one of the most unusual construction types from Mexico in world architecture. Most open chapels were built in what are now the central highlands of Mexico in states such as the

State of Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...

and

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipaliti ...

; however, some examples can be found in areas as far south as the Yucatan Peninsula. The capilla abierta of Tlalmanalco was constructed by the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

s between 1585 and 1591. This chapel was never finished, but is primarily

Plateresque Plateresque, meaning "in the manner of a silversmith" (''plata'' being silver in Spanish), was an artistic movement, especially architectural, developed in Spain and its territories, which appeared between the late Gothic and early Renaissance in ...

with

Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

and

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

elements. It also presents indigenous elements in the decoration, which was done by native craftsmen. The images in the decoration depict the battle between good and evil, represented by monkeys, lions, angels and cherubs. There are also faces of the devil with horns. The chapel was declared a colonial monument in 1936. The capilla abierta of Coixtlahuaca is adjacent to the Church of San Juan Bautista, in

San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca is a small town and municipality located in the Mixteca Region of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, and the center of the Coixtlahuaca district. The name, "Coixtlahuaca" means 'plain of snakes' in the Nahuatl language. ...

, Oaxaca. It is square with a trapezoid apse covered by a ribbed vault. To the right of the chapel is a kind of a sacristy with had a flat, wood-bean roof, since disappeared. On that roof was a choir with views of the open chapel from its balcony. Some of the decorative work included friezes of dragon heads and pelicans. This chapel was formally called the “Chapel of the Indians” and believed to have been built before the main church. Today it lies in ruins and has not been restored. Santiago Apóstol Oaxaca

The capilla abierta of

Teposcolula San Juan Teposcolula is a town and municipality in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, often known simply as Teposcolula. The name Teposcolula means “next to the twist in copper”. It is part of the Teposcolula District in the center of the Mixteca Re ...

is a variant of the portico type but slightly more complicated. It is formed by two naves covered by wood which separate an arcade with five arches. The outer nave is open to the atrium. In the center, was the space for the altar covered by an octagonal groin vault. It is similar to a multi-naved church. In

Tizatlan Tizatlan, in pre-Columbian Mexico, was one of the four independent altepemeh (polities, sing. altepetl) that constituted the confederation of Tlaxcallan. Today Tizatlan is a part of the modern city of Tlaxcala, and the Pre-Columbian city is visi ...

, the capilla abierta was constructed very similarly to the pre-Hispanic altars with paintings. The main church was not built until the 17th century and the open chapel was incorporated as the apse. The former monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion, now the Cathedral of Tlaxcala has two atriums. The more elevated one has a bellower with an open chapel in which one of the first plays in

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

directed by the friars was performed. CapillaAbiertaCatCV

One of the most-visited historic monuments in the State of Mexico is the open chapel of

Calimaya Calimaya is a town and municipality located just south of Toluca, the capital of the State of Mexico in central Mexico. The settlement was probably established around 800 BCE, when the city of Teotenango was in existence. It remained an important ...

. This chapel was constructed in 1529 by the Franciscans for evangelization purposes. The construction has three main parts: the chapel with six arches, the apse with an altar from the 16th century, and the baptistery. The altar is referred to as the “Señor del Cuerito” for the oil painting of Christ to which has been attributed a significant number of miracles. This is one of the first evangelization centers in Mexico. In the Yucatan Peninsula, two examples of capilla abiertas can be found in the former Mayan cities of

Dzibilchaltun Dzibilchaltún ( Yucatec: Ts'íibil Cháaltun, ) is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán, approximately north of state capital of Mérida. Location In the view of modern researchers, the ancient builders of Dzibilcha ...

and Oxtancah. Dzibilchaltun is located near Mérida and has a pyramid known as the Temple of the Seven Dolls (Templo de las Siete Muñecas) which is located near a natural water well. Between this well and the pyramid was constructed an open chapel, breaking the trajectory between the pyramid and the once-sacred well. Oxtancah is located near

Chetumal Chetumal (, , ; yua, label=Yucatec Maya, Chactemàal , ) is a city on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. It is the capital of the state of Quintana Roo and the municipal seat of the Municipality of Othón P. Blanco. In 2020 i ...

. Here

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

Alonso de Avila constructed an open chapel over one of the Mayan temples. One of the walls contains the images of three Spanish style ships from that era. Due to strong native resistance, this early Spanish settlement only lasted a few years, but the chapel remains.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite news , title= Encuentros con Mexico/ Andanzas para recordar , first= Ricardo , last= Diazmunoz , author2=Maryell Ortiz de Zarate, newspaper=Reforma , location=Mexico City , date=December 10, 2000 , page=4 , language=Spanish , trans-title=Encounters with Mexico/Trails to remember {{cite journal , last=Quintanar Hinojosa (ed) , first=Beatriz , date=Sep 2009 , title=Tlalmanalco , journal=Mexico Desconocido Guia Especial:Puebles con Encanto del Bicentenario , issn=1870-9419 , pages=80–85 , url=http://www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx {{cite web , url=http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/arte/contextos/4801.htm , title=Una iglesia y un espacio abiertos: las capillas de indios , first=Joaquín , last=Yarza Luaces , work=Arte e Historia , publisher=Junta de Castillo y León , location=Spain , language=Spanish , trans-title=One church and one open space: the chapels of the Indians , accessdate=March 26, 2010 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090429160817/http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/arte/contextos/4801.htm , archivedate=April 29, 2009 {{cite web , url= http://www.arqhys.com/construccion/capilla-abierta.html , title= Capilla abierta , publisher=ARQHYS Architects’ Website , language=Spanish , trans-title=Open Chapel , accessdate=March 26, 2010 {{cite news , title= Ecos de Viaje/ Capillas abiertas , first= Adalberto , last=Rios Szalay , newspaper=Reforma , location=Mexico City , date=April 21, 2002 , page=22 , language=Spanish , trans-title=Travel Echos/Open Chapels {{cite news, title=Esplendorosa Capilla abierta o de Indios , first=Joel F , last=Gálvez Vivar , url=http://www.diariodespertar.com.mx/16/Estado/13807-Esplendorosa-Capilla-abierta-Indios.html , newspaper=Despertar de Oaxaca , location=Oaxaca , date=July 18, 2009 , accessdate=March 26, 2010 , language=Spanish , trans-title=Splendid Open chapel of Chapel of the Indians , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421071349/http://www.diariodespertar.com.mx/16/Estado/13807-Esplendorosa-Capilla-abierta-Indios.html , archivedate=April 21, 2012 {{cite news , title= Conservacion de las artes nacionales , first= Jorge Alberto , last=Manrique , newspaper=Reforma , location=Mexico City , date=January 4, 1998 , page=1 , language=Spanish , trans-title=Conservation of national arts {{cite web , url=http://www.indaabin.gob.mx/dgpif/historicos/capilla%20abierta.htm , title=Capilla Abierta de Tlalmanalco , publisher=INDAABIN , location=Mexico , language=Spanish , trans-title=Open Chapel of Tlalmanalco , accessdate=March 26, 2010 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091223052756/http://www.indaabin.gob.mx/dgpif/historicos/capilla%20abierta.htm , archivedate=December 23, 2009 {{cite news , title= Desdena el turismo Capilla de Calimaya , first= Martha , last=Valdespino , newspaper=Reforma , location=Mexico City , date=June 28, 2001 , page=1 , language=Spanish , trans-title=Tourism spurns the Chapel of Calimaya Roman Catholic churches in Mexico Spanish Colonial architecture in Mexico Chapels Architectural elements Church architecture

Structure

Purpose

Examples of open chapels

See also

References