Santuario de Atotonilco

The Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco stands in a small village in the dry Laja River valley, about halfway between Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende. From outside it looks like a fortress, with high blank walls. Inside, nearly every surface of the nave and its side chapels is covered in paintings, which is why it is often called the Sistine Chapel of Mexico. Since 2008 it has shared a UNESCO World Heritage listing with San Miguel de Allende.

Father Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro began the sanctuary in the 1740s, as a place for penance and spiritual retreats. Tradition says he chose the site after a vision of Christ carrying the cross. The murals are mostly by the painter Miguel Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre, who worked on them for about three decades. They tell the story of the Passion along the ceiling, with verses written by Father Neri. The name Atotonilco comes from Nahuatl and refers to hot water, after the thermal springs that still rise nearby.

Atotonilco also has a place in Mexican history. Ignacio Allende married here in 1802, and on September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo's insurgents took a banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe from the church and carried it as their first flag. The sanctuary is still an active place of pilgrimage, and thousands of people come every year for week-long retreats in its Casa de Ejercicios.