Scope of the project

Taxco de Alarcón is a Mexican City located in the state of Guerrero. Due to its architectural beauty it is considered a "pueblo mágico", a term given by Mexican Ministry of Tourism only to a few towns in the country, that have special configurations that make them unique. 

Taxco is the oldest mineral center in the continent, known for its silver deposits, which date from Colonial times. The people of Taxco are known worldwide for their traditional silver handcrafts.

The city still preserves its colonial style. Santa Prisca temple, a church more than 250 years old, built in a novo Hispanic baroque style around 1750, is dedicated to Catholic cult and rises on the top of the heart of downtown Taxco. It has a Latin cross floor, two twin towers in Churrigueresco style and a chapel decorated with Talavera tile, characteristic of Novo Hispanic Architecture.

The Taxco Lighting Master Plan acts as a cultural and educational promoter. It is an incentive for the people of Taxco as well as visitors to recognize church's values as a link with the past, and the need for society to preserve its historic identity and an artistic legacy.

The project is planed in two stages. The first stage integrates the main facade, the two towers and the dome. The second stage includes the sides and back of the church, as well as the plaza. The light shots will be done with high-tech spotlights, modeling out every element of the facade. The temple won't be equipped with braces, visible cables or lamps. It will only be touched by light.

Santa Prisca is the historic heart of the city of Taxco de Alarcón. The church's artistic and architectonic elements have lost reading even though they shape Taxco's cultural patrimony. The objective of the Lighting Master Plan is shedding light on knowledge. It is important that the members of society recognize and understand the values contained in stone, a material that reflects the ideology of a particular historic moment. To know is not only see, but also be able to read architecture. We wish to preserve architectonic, artistic and symbolic values of the building, which were established by the National Institute of History and Anthropology (INAH), the main institution in charge of preserving patrimonial sites in Mexico.