File:Plate X. The cathedral. A naturalist in Mexico, 1895.jpg

Identifier: reportofnavalcom01unit (find matches)
Title: Report of the Naval committee to the House of representatives, August, 1850, in favor of the establishment of a line of mail steamships to the western coast of Africa, and thence via the Mediterranean to London;
Year: 1850 (1850s)
Authors: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Naval Affairs YA Pamphlet Collection (Library of Congress) DLC (from old catalog)
Subjects: Mail steamers African Americans
Publisher: Washington, Printed by Gideon and co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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wers are each over twohundred feet in height, of Doric and Ionic architecture. Inthe western tower is the great bell, named after the patronsaint of Mexico, Santa Maria de Guadalupe, which measuresnineteen feet in height, being the largest, in size andweight, in the world. The basso-relievos, statues, andfriezes of the fagade are of White marble. The structuremeasures over four hundred feet in length, and two hundredin width, and is in shape like a cross. Its roof is supportedby pillars, each thirty-five feet in circumference, and is onehundred and seventy-five feet from the floor. The highaltar was once the richest in the world, but during the var-ious revolutions, this—and the other six—has been de-spoiled, and millions of dollars have been put in circulationfrom it. The candlesticks were of solid gold, and thestatue of the Assumption was of the same metal, and studdedwith rubies and diamonds. But with all its losses, thechurch is decorated as no other on the American Continent.
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FAMOUS CATHEDRAL. 87 The railing of the choir gallery was manufactured in China,and was said to have cost one and a half millions of dollars.An offer to replace it in solid silver was refused. On thesides of the church there are over a dozen chapels,inclosed in bronze gates, in one of which the body ofIturbide, the first Mexican Emperor, is buried. Two valu-able paintings hang upon the walls, one a Murillo, andthe other an original Michael Angelo. The dim lightwhich pervades the interior of the Cathedral, tempered bythe light of the tall candles, lends a weirdness to the scene,but the effect, generally, is not so good as that rendered byour stained windows. Here, in 1864, Maximilian andCarlotta were crowned Emperor and Empress of Mexico. The view from the top of the Cathedral is grand, and shouldbe seen by every tourist. It was from a height like thisthat Cortez first beheld the beauties of the valley of Anahuac.At our feet lies the plaza, with its tree-dotted Zocalo, whilethe entire

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