The colonial-era Temple of Santiago also called the Temple of Quechula, ended up being sacrificed when the Malpaso or Nezahualcoyotl reservoir was constructed in 1966, resulting in the Temple being submerged in 100 feet of water.
The temple has only been seen once before in all these years, and that was in 2002 when the waters of the reservoir were so low that people could actually walk inside the historic building. Leonel Mendoza, who fishes every day in the reservoir told the Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday, “The people celebrated. They came to eat, to hang out, to do business. I sold them fried fish. They did processions around the church.”
The church was built in the mid-16th century in the Quechula locality by a group of monks led by Friar Bartolome de la Casas. The church was situated on the King’s Highway along the banks of the Grijalva River, a popular route used by the Spanish conquistadors. As an added note, the King’s Highway continued to be used up until the 20th century.
The Temple of Santiago was connected to the nearby monastery of Tecpatan, built in 1564, and remained occupied until the plagues of 1773-1776. It was during this terrible time in the church’s history that it was abandoned, never again to be anything but a memory of the past.
Architect Carlos Navarete worked on a report detailing the structure with Mexican authorities and says the church is 61 meters (183 feet) long and 14 meters (42 feet) wide. Its walls rise 10 meters (30 feet), while the bell tower reaches 16 meters (48 feet) above the ground.
Navarette said that based on architectural similarities between the monastery of Tecpatan and the Temple of Santiago, he believes the two structures were built around the same time. When Navarette was doing the report, he said, “At that time we still found the wood from the chorus loft and the roof beams. Also a large ossuary of the victims of the plague that depopulated the area.”
“It was a church built thinking that this could be a great population center, but it never achieved that,” Navarrete said. “It probably never even had a dedicated priest, only receiving visits from those from Tecpatan.”
