Exploring Colonial Mexico©
Exploring Colonial Mexico©
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The pueblo of San Miguel Mezquitán is now a barrio of the rapidly spreading city of Guadalajara. Overlooking a deep barranca from its lofty site, the parish church dates back to the mid-1600s, according to inscriptions on the entry and the atrium cross. However, the handsome building as we see it today was completed in the 1770s.
We owe this surprisingly elegant church to its architect and master of works Martín de León, also the putative designer of Santa Mónica in Guadalajara, whose bewigged portrait may be that carved on the side portal. Although the facade appears unfinished - the gable is missing - the restrained filigree decoration of its friezes and pillowed pilasters reveals a sensitive eye and masterly treatment of form and surface.
Figurative sculptures and reliefs also abound. Notable among these is a striking pair of angels in flight supporting a crown above the doorway. Wearing the distinctive plumed "conehead" helmets associated with St. Michael, the patron of the church, they are unmistakeably shaped by an indigenous hand and sensibility. Their childlike poses and archaic style of carving hark back to the tequitqui reliefs of the 16th century, and stand in piquant contrast to the otherwise sophisticated detailing of the baroque church front and interior.
Reliefs of flaming demonic figures support the cornices, complementing the angels. Diminutive statues of the Virgin of the Rosary and San Isidro, also carved in an earlier mode and possibly from an former building, perch in the niches of the facade. Gargoyles in the form of devils grimace from atop the nave walls.
The spacious interior matches the front in airy elegance. Its lofty nave is divided from the narrow side aisles by stone arcades of slender columns headed by complex layered capitals. A lifesize figure of St. Michael reveals the archangel's militant side as he vigorously subdues the chained Satan beneath his feet.
The west gateway
The west front
The upper facade with statuary and demons side entry
nave arcades
column capital
St. Michael gargoyles 
the atrium cross
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