Valvanera Cathedral, Mexico City
church in México City
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Valvanera (also Maronite Cathedral of Our Lady of Valvanera sometimes spelled Balvanera, Spanish: Catedral Maronita de Nuestra Señora de Valvanera) is located southeast of the main plaza, or Zocalo, of Mexico City on the corner of Correo Mayor and República de Uruguay in the historic center. The church originally belonged to the Convent of Santo Niño Perdido which was founded in 1573. This would then become a Conceptionist convent in the 17th century, when the church and convent were rebuilt in 1667. It also gained its current name at that time.
Due to the Reform Laws in 1861, the nuns were required to vacate the convent portion and the cloister and other buildings associated with the church were demolished. Its main altar was nearly destroyed during the political struggles of the 19th century but the oil of the Black Virgin of Valvanera (or Balvanera) remains.
This church was declared a historic monument on August 30, 1932.
Nowadays this church is the cathedral of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of the Martyrs of Lebanon in Mexico.
The church is of Baroque style with its main entrance at the side of the church, as was common with convents in Mexico. The bell tower is covered in tile from Puebla.
The public source identifies “Valvanera Cathedral, Mexico City” as church in México City. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Valvanera, Cathedral and Mexico.
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This entry incorporates text from “Valvanera Cathedral, Mexico City” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.