Inmaculada Concepción, Clavería

Photos: Catedrales e Iglesias/Cathedrals and Churches, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

The church of the Immaculate Conception is officially the Parroquia de la Inmaculada Concepción de Clavería. Somewhat improbably, it stands as one of the chief landmarks in the greater Clavería area. And that’s considering the church’s exceptional position near the market and the main commercial thoroughfare.

Construction on the church finished in 1945. That’s just some 20-odd years into the modern life of the neighborhood. At its westernmost, the neighborhood had benefited from the development of the Avenida Azcapotzalco in the late Porfiriato period. But it had still been called Ex-hacienda de San Antonio Clavería at the beginning of 1923.

The neighborhood then grew quickly. Historically, it’s remembered as one of the earliest sub-divisions of a 19th-century estate. It was laid out and sold as a neighborhood, with individual buyers purchasing lots within a pre-planned community. The success of the endeavor led to the later development of Nueva Santa Maria to the east.

Nueva Santa Maria may well have imitated the placement of the Immaculate Conception church, just south of its own neighborhood glorieta. Here in Claveria, the church is a must-see.

The façade bears a distinct echo of the 1930s. If not exactly the austere Neo-Classicism of Totalitarian Europe, it still reminds one of the rough decade the Church had just come through. Something in that austerity still seems to inspire. Inside, the stained glass is even more uplifting.

The church is roughly a 4-minute walk from the Parque de la China and 15 minutes or so north of the Metro Cuitláhuac.