Zacatecas - Day 2

Flying Buttresses at Ex Templo de San Agustin

After a good breakfast in the hotel restaurant Brenda and I went in search of a dentist.  Brenda had lost a fragment of a front tooth two weeks earlier and we had hoped that it would hold together until her return to Australia.  However, during a steak dinner last night she lost a bigger fragment and the tooth needed prompt attention.

Early History of Zacatecas

Middle History of Zacatecas

Recent History of Zacatecas

I looked up the names of some dentists in the internet.  We could not find the first one and the next two were closed even though it was after 9.30 AM.  Fortunately the last dentist on my list was on the premises and did a superb repair job on the tooth.   His charge was 700 pesos ($58) and we considered it a bargain especially since he did the emergency work on the spot.

View From Second Floor of Palacio de Gobierno

Later we went for a walk around the central district, enjoying the cobblestone streets with old buildings on each side.  I spotted one building with flying buttresses, something that I had seen only in photographs of some of the great European cathedrals.  We went into the building which was being used as a museum of modern paintings.  It had a sad history.  The Ex-Templo de San Agustin was built in the 17th century for the Augustinian monks.  During the 19th century anti clerical movement it became a cantina and Masonic lodge.  Then the Presbyterian missionaries bought in in 1882.  They found its appointments too Catholic and scraped the facade clean and removed many of the statues and decorations inside.

Ex Governor's Mansion, Now a Public Building

Templo de Fatima

We also visited the Palacio de Gobierno built in the 18th century for a colonial family.  Today it is a working building housing various government offices.  We were allowed inside to see a 3-part mural painted in 1970 depicting the history of Zacatecas.

After the usual lunch and nap we visited a park with the remnants of the city aqueduct on one side.  We then went up a hill to investigate an interesting looking spire and encountered a large building in splendid surroundings that was built as the state governor's residence just after WWII.

The spire belonged to Templo de Fatima, built in neo Gothic style.  While inspecting the splendid interior of the building I commented to Brenda that churches this grand could not be built in this day due to labor costs.  How wrong I was.  A plaque outside stated that the church was consecrated in 1966, not long after construction began.  It was completed in 2004.  Brenda and I marveled at how this society could find the motivation to build yet another imposing church on a prime piece of land atop a hill, when this country seems to be full of magnificent churches.

Part of 70 Piece Youth Band

View From Our Hotel Room

Back at the hotel I became aware of a cacophony while I was writing this blog.  The sound went on for about 10 minutes and all of a sudden it snapped into the tight disciplined sounds of a very good band.  Brenda and I ventured into the street to find the band and it turned out to be inside the building next door - one of those 19th century ones that had been turned into an auditorium.  We went inside and for 30 minutes enjoyed the performance of what must have been a 70 piece band of young people. I didn't see a bassoon or French horn but just about every other instrument was represented, including a line of about 10 flutes and 5 girls with tambourines.  It was a very enjoyable surprise to us.