Neogothic and Vatican Council II in the religious architecture of Mexico

Rearrangements of an anomaly

Abstract

In Mexico, the Gothic Revival style was developed from the third quarter of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, associated with a repositioning strategy of the Catholic Church against the Mexican liberal governments. However, the various wars (Mexican revolution, Cristiada), anticlerical government policies and economic problems made that some of the largest temples in that style was continued slowly their construction for decades, reaching it until today. This paper analyses like two of these temples, the Shrine of Virgen de Guadalupe in Zamora (Michoacán) and the Expiatory Temple of the Blessed Sacrament in Guadalajara (Jalisco) were adapted to the liturgical guidelines of the Second Vatican Council. The result is an aesthetic and architectural< paradox that becomes the outside Gothic of these temples in a box full of symbolism while inside of the temple assumes the guidelines Second Vatican Council, but embedded in a Gothic environment.