DDN-2
«Overall, churches in Caracas are well built. The Altagracia parish church is the best of all and its construction would even honor the main cities of France. Virtue’s right to public esteem and admiration compels me to state that free mulattos, neighbors of this church, built and adorned it at their expense, with the help of some contributions by white people». That is how diplomat Francisco Depons (1751-1812) described this temple, built by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Altagracia, Society of Mulattos, founded in 1614, that previously functioned at the church of the Dominican Convent in San Jacinto. This church, one of the oldest in the city, and the fifth to be built in Caracas was destroyed in the 1812 earthquake. In 1857 it was reconstructed. This temple reinterprets neoclassic and neogothic elements. It has three main accesses, crowned with large windows. The most relevant aspects of its ornamentation are the cornices, topped with three arched pediments. Inside, the church has three naves, like the basilica churches. The central nave, higher and longer, rests on Tuscan columns. The main altar houses a colonial altarpiece made by Francisco José Cardozo (1767-1818) in 1817. Works of prominent Venezuelan painters are here, like La Inmaculada Concepción and El Bautismo del Salvador by Antonio Herrera Toro (1857-1914).
DDN-1