It is in Tilaco where the visitor ends his tour of the missions of the Sierra Gorda de Querétaro. But not for being the last it is less charming ...
The evangelizing facade of the church of this mission is happy, naive, full of life. And the landscape of the green valley sandwiched between blue mountains contributes to this.
The seraphic saint is the one who presides over the group, at the top of the third body, with one foot in front of his niche —or rather his box—, almost wanting to go out to dance. Perhaps he is prompted to do so by the musical angel sharks that surround him: two playing violin and guitar and two singing, at the same time that they draw back the curtain.
The entrance gate has a semicircular arch. In the first body, within graceful niches, rest Saint Peter and Saint Paul. In the second, they serve as the base of some stipes columns, four cute little mermaids that act as caryatids. The stipes frame two niches: in one a sweet Immaculate rests, and in the other, Saint Joseph holds the Child Jesus in his arms.
The skylight is rhomboid and the curtains drawn by angels are truly regal. The high end of the cover is a kind of vase, with an oriental air.
Tilaco has an airy three-section tower, and the atrium has a central wrought iron cross, plus chapels. Juan Crespí, Ignacio Gastón, Miguel de la Campa, Pascual Sospedra and Antonio Cruzado, among others, worked here for ten years.
With this mission, dear traveler, you finish your journey around the five baroque wonders that adorned the 18th century in those lands of the former New Spain.
