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The Ex-monastery of Santiago Apóstol is located in the town of Cuilapan de Guerrero in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The fortress-like complex is easily seen from the highway as one travels south from the capital city of Oaxaca on the road leading to Villa de Zaachila, and it is visited by both Mexican and international tourists. The complex is located on a small hill which gives it a view of much of the valley area. It is one of the most extravagant and elaborate colonial era constructions in Oaxaca, but it is often overlooked in favor of churches and monasteries located in the Mexico City area.〔Taylor, p. 3〕 Built of green quarried stone and river rocks, it is a quiet place where footsteps can echo in the hallways.〔 The extravagances of the site, including the tall basilica, the elaborate baptismal font, the Gothic cloister and murals remain as national treasures.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Cuilapan de Guerrero )〕 The decorative work of the monastery, especially its murals, are important because they show a systematic blending of indigenous elements into the Christian framework, done in order to support the evangelization process in the local Mixtec and Zapotec peoples.〔Taylor, p. iv〕 The single-naved church is used for worship but the roofless basilica and cloister are under the control of INAH, which uses many of the second-floor rooms of the cloister as workshops for restoration projects and runs a small museum with important liturgical items from the 16th century. ==History== Construction of the monastery complex began in the 1550s. The Dominicans came to Oaxaca and established themselves in Cuilapan in 1550, taking charge of evangelization efforts in the central valleys region.〔Taylor, p. 73〕 Official license to build the complex was granted in 1555 by viceroy Luis de Velasco and contained the mandate that the construction be “modest”.〔Taylor, p. 75〕 Construction began in 1556 with Antonio de Barbosa as designer. The complex is a mixture of several architectural styles that were predominant in Europe in the 16th century and includes Gothic, Renaissance, Plateresque and Moorish elements. There are also some indigenous elements to be found in the decorative work. Unlike larger monastic institutions in Mexico City and Puebla, which could have as many as fifty monks, only four friars were stationed there in 1555, Domingo de Aguiñaga, Tomás Hurtado, Vicente Gómez and Antonio Barbosa. They were also in charge of the regular clergy, who probably built their church in the middle of the old Mixtec town.〔 Abuses of the encomienda system, which reduced native population to near slaves, often led to grandiose projects, violating the mandate for modesty, with documents from the 1560s admonishing friars for their exploitation of native workers.〔Taylor, pp. 77–78〕 Construction of the complex was halted in the 1570s and the precise reason is not known. Possibilities include the lack of funds, or that the complex had become so sumptuous that authorities stopped it. Another very likely reason was a dispute over who should continue paying for the construction. If a monastery was built on encomienda land, then the encomendero (in this case the Cortés family) would pay. If built on Crown lands (such as the city of Antequera) then the Crown was responsible. Disputes over the land led to dispute over who needed to pay for the construction of the monastery. Another possibility was the native population declined from about 43,000 in the 1520s to 7,000 in 1600, leaving no workers. The pause was initially meant to be temporary, but it became permanent.〔Taylor, p. 60〕〔Taylor, pp. 79–80〕 In 1753, the church and monastery was secularized, meaning control passed from the Dominicans to regular priests. At this time, the monastery had a large collection of ecclesiastical ornaments, painted altarpieces, polychrome sculptures and murals. The complex served as the principal site of interaction between the native populations and the Spaniards and was the center of the political, economic, social and religious life of the town, becoming Cuilapan’s identifying feature.〔Taylor, p. 71〕 However, from this point the wealth and prestige of the institution declined. These secular authorities neglected the maintenance needs of the complex and it deteriorated until it was finally divested of its religious function by the 19th century.〔Taylor, p. 69〕 Vicente Guerrero was imprisoned in the small rooms of the lower cloister by political opponents and subsequently executed on 14 February 1831.〔 The basilica and church remained unfinished and mostly unused as late as the 19th century. The single-naved church was roofed in the 19th and early 20th centuries and is the only portion of the complex which is used for worship. The basilica and monasteries are tourist attractions under the control of INAH.〔〔 The Cristero War forced the closing of the complex altogether in 1926. When it reopened three years later, much of it was converted into a school for local rural children. Ten years later, that school was relocated to San Antonio de Cal and it was declared a national monument by Instituto Nacional de Arqueología e Historia (INAH) on 10 July 1937.〔 The main elements of the complex include the atrium, the three-aisled basilica, the single-naved church, the two-story cloister, the porteria (covered porch entrance to the cloister), a pilgrim reception area and a number of small chapels.〔Taylor, p. 1〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ex-monastery of Santiago Apóstol」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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