The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption (), located in the city of

Oaxaca de Juarez Oaxaca de Juárez (), or simply Oaxaca (Valley Zapotec languages, Zapotec: ''Ndua''), is the capital and largest city of the eponymous Administrative divisions of Mexico, Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is the municipal seat for the surrounding munici ...

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

, Mexico, is the seat of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Antequera, Oaxaca The Archdiocese of Antequera, Oaxaca () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Mexico. The cathedral church is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in the episcopal see of Oaxaca. It was erecte ...

. Its construction began circa 1535 and it was consecrated on 12 July 1733. It is dedicated to

Our Lady of the Assumption The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was ra ...

History

Construction began in 1535, during which the Temple of San Juan de Dios temporarily served as the cathedral church of the diocese. In 1640, the

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

was installed and the seat of the diocese was transferred to Our Lady of the Assumption. Due to earthquakes in the 16th and 18th centuries, the cathedral had to be reconstructed several times, with the most recent reconstruction beginning in 1702 and finishing in 1733.

Structure

Its facade is made of green

cantera Cantera, literally meaning "quarry" in Spanish, is a term used in Spain to refer to youth academies and farm teams organized by sports clubs. It is also used to refer to the geographical area that clubs recruit players from. The term is widely ...

stone commonly found in Oaxaca's buildings, and the interior is in Neoclassical style. The altar features a statue of Our Lady of the Assumption (Nuestra Señora de la Asunción) which was made in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

during the Porfirian era, who is represented by a bronze sculpture brought from Europe and made by Tadoini. The towers of the cathedral are not the originals, as they were destroyed in the

1931 Oaxaca earthquake The 1931 Oaxaca earthquake affected portions of southern Mexico on January 14 at 18:50 MST. It registered a magnitude of 8.0 on the surface-wave magnitude scale and had a maximum perceived intensity of X (''Extreme'') on the Mercalli intensity sc ...

. In the south wing there is a clock donated to Oaxaca by King

Fernando VII Ferdinand VII (; 14 October 1784 – 29 September 1833) was King of Spain during the early 19th century. He reigned briefly in 1808 and then again from 1813 to his death in 1833. Before 1813 he was known as ''el Deseado'' (the Desired), and af ...

. The Lord of Lightning is in the last chapel on the left, while the second on the right contains the remains of the Cross of Huatulco. Atop the west wall of the quire is a locally built baroque

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

, parts of which date to 1711–1712, restored in 1997.The Organ of Oaxaca Cathedral
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References

Footnotes

External links

* ttp://www.oaxaca-mio.com/atrac_turisticos/catedral_oaxaca.htm Oaxaca-mio.com: History and description of the cathedral�� {{Authority control Churches in Oaxaca

. Roman Catholic churches completed in 1733 1730s establishments in Mexico 1733 establishments in New Spain 17th-century architecture in Mexico 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Mexico Baroque church buildings in Mexico Renaissance architecture in Mexico Spanish Colonial architecture in Mexico