Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad

The Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad is the sanctuary of the Virgin of Solitude, patron of the city and state of Oaxaca. It stands on Avenida Independencia about four blocks west of the cathedral, at the western edge of the historic centre that UNESCO listed in 1987, raised on a stepped platform at the foot of the Cerro del Fortín. A legend gives the reason it is here: a mule that had joined a muleteer's train lay down at the old hermitage of San Sebastián and would not get up, and the box it carried held the image of the Virgin. The story is told with dates in the 16th or early 17th century, and Bishop Bartolomé de Bohórquez ordered a sanctuary built on the spot.

Work began in 1682 under chaplain Fernando Méndez, and the church was consecrated in 1690; the convent of Augustinian nuns beside it, now used as city offices, was finished later in the decade. The basilica has a Latin-cross plan built of green cantera, with low towers and a squat profile meant to resist earthquakes, and a tiled octagonal dome. Its famous facade, added in 1717 and 1718, is carved like a folding screen (biombo) in three tiers, with saints in niches and reliefs of the Virgin weeping at the foot of the Cross, the Annunciation and the Assumption. In the west gallery is a baroque pipe organ dated 1686, restored to working order in 2000. A small museum behind the church shows the Virgin's dresses, ex-votos and religious objects.

In front of the church, the Plaza de la Danza (built in 1959) and the Jardín Sócrates, the old atrium turned into a park in 1881, step down toward the city. The garden is lined with nieve stalls, and eating a cup of Oaxacan sorbet here, tuna (prickly pear) being the classic flavour, is part of a visit. The big fiesta falls on 18 December: pilgrims arrive from the valley towns, and on the eve there are dances, toritos of fireworks carried through the crowd and a castillo, followed by bands and mariachis serenading the Virgin.