Rodríguez, Lorenzo

▪ Mexican architect

born c. 1704, , Guadix, Spain

died 1774, Mexico City, New Spain [now in Mexico]

 Spanish-born architect who became the originator of the elaborate ultra-Baroque style known as Mexican Churrigueresque.

      Rodríguez was a son and pupil of the chief architect for the bishopric of Guadix. From there he moved to Cádiz as a master mason. By 1731 Rodríguez had settled in Mexico City, where he was initially employed as a carpenter at the Mint.

      His Sagrario Metropolitano (c. 1749–69), a small church adjoining the cathedral in Mexico City, is a principal Churrigueresque monument in the New World. Its facades are lavishly ornamented in the tradition of Rodríguez' native Andalusia but surpass even that style in their richness and complexity of detail.

      Among Rodríguez' other works are the chapel of the Convent of Santo Domingo (dedicated 1757, now demolished) and, probably, the Church of La Santísima Trinidad (begun c. 1755 on the site of an earlier chapel), both in Mexico City. Rodríguez' influence can be seen best in the mining territory of Guanajuato, northwest of Mexico City, where adherents to his style built extensively.

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