ArchitectureChurch of the Santa VeracruzToluca

The Church of the Santa Veracruz is a chapel built on December 13, 1753 at the place where the Franciscan missionaries had once built another chapel in the 16th century.

They worshiped our Señor de la Santa Veracruz or Cristo Negro de la Santa Verzcruz, a highly revered image that in principle you could see at the major altar of the parish of San Francisco de Toluca.

Currently, the Cristo Negro is at the major altar of the chapel, flanked by the the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary.

The front of the building, in the Baroque style, consists of two parts, a bell tower and another that contains a clock that belonged to the convent of the Carmelitas del Santo Desierto de  Tenancingo.

On one side of the main gate is a plaque commemorating the first centenary in which the church was given to the Claretian Missionaries:

"On August 3, 1884, by decree of the Archbishop of Mexico Dr. Pelagius Antonio de la Bastida y Davalos, gives this church to the RR.PP Misioneros Hijos del Inmaculado Corazón de María, founded by San Antonio María Claret on July 16, 1849.

Served as parish priest of Toluca, Brother Buenaventura Merlin is remembered by many titles, and as the church Chaplain Brother Manuel Escudero who, on behalf of the Archbishop, handed the keys of the church to the M.R.P. Domingo Solá y Vives C.M.F. Within a year, on April 4, 1885, P. Domingo Solá, in the annexes of the Church of the Santa Veracruz founded the Spanish-Mexican College where he molded many generations of Toluqueños. Taught culture at this Center of Learning from 1885 to 1914."