iglesia de San José

The church of San José, now the Santuario Diocesano del Señor San José, stands on Calle 1 de Mayo in the historic centre of Tlaxcala city, a block from Plaza Juárez and the Palacio Legislativo. It was formerly called the parish of San Juan and San José, and has been part of Tlaxcala's historic monuments zone since 11 April 1986.

It occupies the site of a 16th-century hermitage. Early in the 17th century a small church was built beside it; in 1666 that was pulled down to make way for a larger one, finished on 18 March 1669 and opened with four days of celebrations. In colonial times it was the church for Spaniards, while the Capilla Real de Indios served the Indigenous population. It was twice a cathedral: in 1640, when Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza took the Franciscans' parishes into secular hands, and from 1959 to 1975 as the first seat of the new Diocese of Tlaxcala, until the bishopric moved to the present cathedral.

The building has had to be rebuilt more than once. The earthquake of 3 October 1864 brought down the main dome and the vault, and the church was closed for four years; when it reopened in 1868 it had gained the tile and Talavera facing that sets it apart. The earthquake of 19 September 2017 cracked the mortar-decorated façade, walls and tower, and the lantern atop the tower fell through the choir vault. INAH restored it in stages and handed it back in early 2024; the outer walls, brick-red for years, were repainted in colours linked to Saint Joseph's robes. It reopened in March 2024, and in 2025 the diocese raised it to a diocesan shrine.

Inside it has a Latin-cross plan, neoclassical decoration, a baroque altarpiece at the high altar and gilded churrigueresque altarpieces by the lower choir, whose screen is carved wood. The side chapels hold oil paintings by Manuel Caro, and the two stone holy-water fonts, brought from the Capilla Real de Indios, show the god Camaxtli and the Spanish imperial arms on their pedestals. Among the chapels, that of Jesús Nazareno keeps an image carried in procession on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and that of the Niño Milagroso de Tlaxcala holds a carved Christ Child that, according to tradition, moved in a young woman's arms in 1914; the faithful bring it toys and sweets, and its feast is on 14 February.