The Temple of Santiago, also known as the Temple of Quechula, is an abandoned

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

located in the Nezahualcoyotl Reservoir in

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. It was founded by Dominican friars led by

Bartolomé de las Casas Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman then became a Dominican friar ...

, the famous social reformer.

History

Colonial times

In 1564, the Dominican

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

and social reformer

and his fellow

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s founded a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

Tecpatán Tecpatán is a town and one of the 119 Municipalities of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. As of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 41,045, up from 38,383 as of 2005. It covers an area of 770.1 km². As of 2010, the town of Tecpat ...

, in what is now the Mexican State of Chiapas. Based on the architectural similarities, the Temple of Santiago is believed to have been constructed by the same builders. At the time, the church served a much smaller congregation than it could handle, and was designed in preparation for large population growth. Carlos Navarrete, an architect who worked on a Mexican government report of the church, told the Associated Press:

It was a church built thinking that this could be a great population center, but it never achieved that. It probably never even had a dedicated
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
, only receiving visits from those from Tecpatan.

Navarrete reported that the church was abandoned during the 1773–76 smallpox epidemic. He wrote about the time of the report:

At that time, we still found the wood from the chorus loft and the roof beams. Also, a large
ossuary An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the ...
of the victims of the plague that depopulated the area.

After its abandonment, the church was never used for ecclesiastical purposes again.

Submersion

In 1966, the Nezahualcoyotl Reservoir was completed from the construction of the

Malpaso Dam The Malpaso Dam, officially known as the Nezahualcóyotl Dam, is located in the Centro region of Chiapas, Mexico near the border with Tabasco and Veracruz. It was the first of several major dams built on the Grijalva River to generate hydroelectri ...

, and the Temple of Santiago was completely submerged. It has reappeared periodically, at times when the

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

water levels have dropped, the first recorded such time being in 2002. That time, the water levels were so low that the church floor was dry, and local people visited it to hold parties. In 2015, the Temple reappeared again, after water levels dropped more than 80 feet during a

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

. Although this time the church was still partially submerged, local fishermen began operating boat tours to the site.

References

{{coord missing, Chiapas Former Roman Catholic church buildings Buildings and structures in Chiapas Roman Catholic churches in Mexico