We have concluded the section dedicated to the Civil Architecture, which leaded us to know along the fourteen issues, some of the most important colonial constructions in Campeche City.

Now we will start a new series denominated as Religious Architecture, where we will travel through time to know the most important religious enclosures that had written the history of Campeche.

The importance of the Cathedral of Campeche built in the XVI century, resides in the historical fact of its same construction, since in order to commemorating the foundation of the village of San Francisco de Campeche made by Francisco of Montejo el Adelantado.

Today, when speaking of Campeche we cannot leave to a side its Cathedral that stands out with its majestic twin towers which have been reason of writers', poets and painters inspiration, and that they are cause of admiration to people that visit us.

The Cathedral is located to a side of the Main Square, on Calle 55, among Calle 8 and Calle 10 in the historical Center of Campeche City.

On December 8, 1526, emperor Carlos V granted Don Francisco de Montejo el Adelantado the authorization to conquer and to populate the county of Yucatan. To commemorate this fact, in 1540 Francisco de Montejo junior, ordered to build in the current City of Campeche a small church in honor of the Purísima Concepción, which is celebrated that day. This construction was made with lime and pebble, with palm roof. Toward 1650 the first works of amplification of the parish began.

On August 4, 1758, by initiative of the priest's Manuel José Nájera, the amplification works and remodeling of the church were restarted, and concluded on October 22, 1760 with the construction of Jesús Nazareno's chapel and of the tower on the side of the sea, "La Española" (The Spaniard), where the first public clock was placed, as well as a Spanish coat of arms worked in stone which occupied the center, the coat of arms was destroyed after the independence of Mexico.

In 1833 the Yucatan bishop Don José María Guerra consecrated the parish and in 1895 the Pope León VIII erected the bishopric in Campeche, rising the range of the parish of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, to Cathedral.

Between 1849 and 1850 it was ordered to build the tower of the land side, well-known as "La Campechana". The clock of 4 luminous masks that is still working in this tower, was installed in 1916.

The Cathedral of Campeche has cross shape plan, with a single nave divided in six tracts by means of quarry arches. In the last arch of the nave it is formed an octagonal dome. To the rear of the nave there is the presbytery and were a major altar in cypress form is set, made out of wood oil colored in white with some golden details.

On the other end, over the main door, the chancel is formed by a wooden balcony and, in the inferior part, near the door there is the small chapel of the baptistery out of the thickness of the wall. The floors are made of white and black marble and the front of the platform of the presbytery, as well as the clog of the walls, are covered with tiles of Puebla.

The main facade, made with well carved stone, presents a cover flanked by two tower-steeples tall and slender. This cover consists of two bodies framed by two pilasters grooved over pedestals and it finishes with a simple curved end with a pear shaped ornament in the axis on the pilasters. In the first body there is the major door with an iron door and to its sides two pilasters matched up with niches that hold sculptures of San Pedro and San Pablo.

In the axis of the second body there is the window of the chancel with a trilobular arch and a small sculpture, also framed by two pilasters and niches with small sculptures of saints. Between the pilasters and the windows there are two ox eyes and under them some pear shaped ornaments embedded to the wall. In the center of the one finishes off a shield with the papal badges is appreciated.

The towers consist on three bodies of square plant and flat walls, only separated by a simple small cornice, on them there are two more bodies, one square and other octagonal, both with grooved pilasters and arches of half point to hold the bells, finished off in a bulbous cupola with stone cross.

he dome is simple, with four double flying buttresses. The atrium of the Iglesia Catedral consists on a platform of 1.30 meters high with brick and marble floor surrounded by an iron gate.

In the interior patio there is Jesús Nazareno's chapel that consists on a single nave covered with a canyon vault in whose interior houses a small chancel in cannon form. In its facade it presents a bell gable of three arches with a curved end with a pear shaped ornament in the axis. To the right of the church the building of the Bishopric is located whose facade consists in a portal with arches with access to the atrium.

Cypress: major altar formed by four altars set together

Clog: part of the pedestal which holds the churches’ walls

Pilaster: square column

Pear shaped ornament: top ornament of a column in a pear shape

Trilobular arch: an arch formed by three portions of circles

Ox eye: circular hole destined to illuminate or ventilate.

Small Cornice: small mold that crowns the facade or the top of to wall

Half point arch: arch formed by a semi circle

Bulbous Cupola: small cupola in a bulb shape

Cannon Vault: a vault shaped as a half hallow cylinder

Bell gable: special steeple formed by a single wall with holes as windows which hold the bells.

Perez Galaz, Juan de Dios. Diccionario Geográfico e histórico de Campeche. Campeche: 1944. 227-230

Vergara B. Sergio de la L. Apuntes de terminología arquitectónica del siglo XVII. Centro Regional INAH Puebla. 1987.

Piña Chan Román. Campeche Durante el Periodo Colonial. Col. Concordia, Campeche: Muralla Editorial S.A. de C.V., 1987. 156-165.

La Ciudad Donde Nací. Una arqueología de la memoria. México. Gobierno del Estado de Campeche/Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. 1987. 49-54.