Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Two Santo Domingos

Church of Santo Domingo, Oaxaca

Our trip to Oaxaca included visits to two churches that bear the name of Santo Domingo. The first one here is a very famous one. It's right in the middle of the city of Oaxaca and it's very big, very beautiful, and very old.

Church of Santo Domingo, Tlacolula

The other Santo Domingo (shown above) that we visited was off in the very small, humble town of Tlacolula, about a half hour or so out of Oaxaca. Like the town, the church appeared modest, but once inside... whew! It was an over-the-top masterpiece of Mexican ultra baroque church architecture. The ceiling in the old wing seemed like a single writhing mass of sculpted plaster, alive with the faces of saints and every manner of ornamentation. The photo below sort of begins to give you an idea of how ornate it is.

Tlacolula 01

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