Qualla: Church of Santa Prisca de Taxco

Church of Santa Prisca de Taxco: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GAED, CC BY-SA 3.0. Jose de la Borda arrived in Taxco with nothing and built a church that almost took everything back. Between 1751 and 1759, the French-born silver magnate poured his fortune into the Parroquia de Santa Prisca y San Sebastian, a Churrigueresque monument so lavish that it nearly bankrupted the man who commissioned it. The church rises from the east side of Taxco's main plaza, its twin towers commanding the hillside town in the southern state of Guerrero. For nearly half a century -- from 1758 to 1806 -- it was the tallest building in all of Mexico.

Image: GAED | CC BY-SA 3.0

Church of Santa Prisca de Taxco: A Father's Extravagance

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cesar eduardo torres rosas, CC BY-SA 3.0. Borda's motive was personal. He wanted a church where his son, the priest Manuel de la Borda, could officiate mass. Having arrived in the Taxco mining district only thirty-five years before construction began, Borda had already become one of the region's most powerful figures -- ...

Image: Cesar eduardo torres rosas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Church of Santa Prisca de Taxco: Stone, Tile, and Gold

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AlejandroLinaresGarcia, CC BY-SA 4.0. The facade faces west, as colonial custom dictated, and it is an exercise in controlled excess. Classicist pilasters stand beside Solomonic columns from the previous century, all wrapped in carved foliage, scrolls, ribbons, niches sheltering saints, heraldic shields, and diamond-...

Image: AlejandroLinaresGarcia | CC BY-SA 4.0

Church of Santa Prisca de Taxco: The Storm and the Apparition

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elias Zamora, CC BY-SA 4.0. Taxco remembers a legend from the construction years. While Borda was away on business in Guanajuato, a storm rolled over the unfinished church -- black clouds, cold winds whistling through the incomplete towers. The workmen were terrified. Lightning struck the cupola, and instea...

Image: Elias Zamora | CC BY-SA 4.0

Church of Santa Prisca de Taxco: Masterworks Within

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Carlos Roberto Gobe, CC BY-SA 4.0. The church houses significant works of colonial art, most notably "The Martyrdom of Saint Prisca," painted in 1760 by Miguel Cabrera, one of the most celebrated artists of New Spain. The painting hangs in the interior alongside gilded retablos -- ornate altarpiece screens -- that...

Image: Carlos Roberto Gobe | CC BY-SA 4.0