DISTINGUISHED AND NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE GUADALUPE VIRGIN BASILICA

Juan Diego's tilma, the sack cloth bearing the miraculous image of the Holy Virgin, is exhibited in the main Basilica.One special stop is La Capilla del Pocito (Chapel of the Little Well) - a well which reputedly opened under the feet of the Virgin.

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New Basilica

This building was consecrated on October 12th, 1976. Its modern architectural design is based on a circular plan of One Hundred meters diameter, aimed at a larger audience who are participating in liturgical celebrations, and admiring the beauty of Saint Juan Diego's cape

 

Old Basilica

This building was made to honor Holy Mary of Guadalupe and consecrated on May 1st. 1709. Architect Pedro de Arrieta also designed on the front doors a group of high reliefs with the Manifestations to Juan Diego, along with apostles and prophets.

 

Capuchin Nunnery

The church and cloister of the Capuchin Sisters is the Franciscan female congregation, which was built by architect Ignacio Castera in 1787. This temple, as well as others of its kind, has its doors on the side instead of the front, not facing the main altarpiece. This design was

planned to make it easier for the nuns to be at mass without breaking their cloister votes, consecrating their life to Jesus Christ inside their nunnery forever.

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Carillion

This singular time machine was opened in 1991. It shows different time measuring methods: On the front it has a civil clock, and an astronomical astrolabe. On the right side is a sundial. On the left side it has an Aztec calendar, used to set planting and harvest times, based on an 18 month or 20 days system. Finally, in the front panel it has a circular stage carillon, where the Virgin Manifestations are shown.

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Mary's Square

On 2011 this area was donated by Carlos Slim Foundation to expand the Holy Mary Sanctuary's capacity, and welcome more pilgrims. Here you will find an Evangelization Center, an auditorium, meeting rooms for congress and conventions, a Guadalupanian Museum, a pigeon shelter, columbarium for ash urns, and a large plaza, where different ethnic groups can show their faith in their cultural expressions (dancing and processions)

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The Native's Parish Church

This eremite is the oldest building in all the area. It was built around 1649, containing the Holy Cloth before being moved to the Basilica. Its name comes from the fact that Saint Juan Diego lived here his last years and later a brotherhood of Native Americans was founded here in 1679.

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The Water Well

There used to be a well, right on the Tepeyac hill slope. For many years, people believed that this was the actual place where Virgin Mary had spoken to Saint Juan Diego. Unfortunately, those who washed their wounds, and drank the water polluted it. Later, architect Francisco Guerrero y Torres designed this chapel around the well. Nor the architect, both masons and other workers charged for its construction, finished in 1791.

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The Offering

This group of seventeen sculptures is on the Tepeyac hill gardens. It represents the Native American's homage to Holy Mary of Guadalupe. It is based on two cascades that gather on the dark-skinned Lady 's feet, symbolizing the birth of a new people, originating from Native and Spanish blood. It was opened in September 1986.

 

The Sailor's Mast

This monument was built on the Eastern slope path, at the same time that the Well's Chapel, remembering a Spanish boat that avoided shipwreck in front of Veracruz coast by praying to Our Lady of Tepeyac Hill and saving their life. As gratitude, the sailors brought the ship's mast to be the axis of a monument. However, in the beginning of XX Century, a strong wind destroyed it, so it was replaced by a more resistant one, made of concrete.

 

Chapel of the Hill

The Guadalupanian tradition recalls on this place, at the top of Tepeyac hill, where Saint Juan Diego gathered the flowers to be the proof to be shown to Bishop Zumarraga, as testimony of Holy Mary of Guadalupe's Manifestation. However, the chapel was built until 1666, when the baker Cristobal de Aguirre and his wife Teresa Pelegrina, financed a small church to be built. Since its room wasn't enough for the great number of pilgrims that came to see the holy place, a larger one was built in 1749.

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Jesus Christ King Altar

On one side of Tepeyac Hill a Prayer's Altar for Jesus Christ King was built in correspondence to its liturgical celebration, including a path with limestone monuments to the ninth blesses of the Gospel. Along the path you see the images of Jesus and Mary's Sacred Hearts, and it ends at an impressive Jesus Christ King bronze sculpture, which is 18 feet tall, representing Jesus on top of a globe, with a crown and a scepter on one hand.

 

John Paul II monument:

This sculpture was made to remember the Pope's visit to Mexico in 1979. It is a cast bronze large nine feet sculpture, representing the Pope in a blessing gesture with a walking stick on one hand. It was design by artist Ernesto R. Tamariz, from Puebla city and it was placed between the old and new Basilicas so everyone could see it, upon its inauguration on December 12th, 1981, as part of 450 anniversary celebrations of Tepeyac Hill's Virgin Mary manifestations.

 

**Lunch at a local restaurant on your own**

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TEOTIHUACAN PYRAMIDS & RUINS

After our late lunch, we will visit the world-famous Pyramids of Teotihuacan & Ruins (Pyramids of the Sun & the Moon). In the year 600 AD., Teotihuacan was one of the largest cities in the world housing more than 75 temples to the Aztec gods. Teotihuacan translated means: Place Where Gods Were Made. We will have the opportunity explore the ruins and those who are able, can climb the pyramids of the Sun and/or the Moon.

 

Tulpetlac (5th Apparition Site)

We will depart to Tulpetlac where Juan Diego's uncle, Juan Bernardino, was cured. This is the church of the Fifth Apparition. A church is built over this spot and is known as the Church of the Healing. Juan Bernardino and Juan Diego had properties and land that was inherited from their ancestors, so they had the duty to feed and look after other worker's families' welfare. The Fifth Manifestation sanctuary at Tulpetlac, was built to commemorate Our Lady's fifth manifestation to uncle Juan Bernardino, who was healed from a deadly illness by the Holy Virgin. Here She asked to be known as "The Ever-Virgin Mary of Guadalupe". This sanctuary was built on the place where Saint Juan Diego's humble hut used to be, and where a former chapel was erected before the present one. Return to downtown for dinner.

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** Dinner at a local restaurant on your own**