Our tour starts at 1 pm while visiting the most important basilica in Mexico, where you can buy representations of the most significant events of the miracles of the Virgen of Guadalupe, the virgin most worshiped by Catholic believers in all Mexico.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) is a Roman Catholic church, a basilica, and a national shrine of Mexico, north of Mexico City. The shrine was built near the hill of Tepeyac where Our Lady of Guadalupe is believed to have appeared to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. This site is also known as La Villa de Guadalupe or, simply La Villa, because it includes several churches and related buildings.
The present church was constructed on the site of an earlier 16th-century church that was finished in 1709, now the Old Basilica. When that basilica became dangerous due to the sinking of its foundations, a modern structure called the New Basilica was built next to it; the original image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is now housed in this New Basilica.
Built between 1974 and 1976, the new Basilica has a circular floorplan so that the image of the Virgin can be seen from any point within the building. The choir is located between the altar and the churchgoers to indicate that the choir too is part of the group of the faithful. To the sides are the chapels of the Santisimo and of Saint Joseph. It has nine chapels on the upper floor. Under the main floor are the Basilica's crypts, with 15,000 niches and ten chapels. Its seven front doors are carved as an allusion to the seven gates of Celestial Jerusalem referred to by Christ.
On the Sanctuary grounds where the New Basilica is located, there are also many other buildings, including the original chapel on the exact site of the apparitions to Juan Diego (Capilla del Cerrito) and the Old Basilica consecrated in 1709, as well as other chapels where Masses and other sacraments of the Church are celebrated daily.
You will then have time to visit the different points of interest in the Basilica compound such as:
El Baptisterio--The Baptistery Consecrated in 1991
Capilla del Pocito-- The Chapel of the Well built in 1791
Capilla del Cerrito--The Chapel of the Hill or Hill of Tepeyac, where the peasant Juan Diego saw the image of the Virgen of Guadalupe in 1749
Parroquia de los Indios--The Parish of the Indians built in 1649
There will also be time to hear a mass and to make your confession to a priest on duty if you so desire.
For your return, you will gather at the sculpture of Pope John Paul II at 5:45 for a 6pm departure for the hotel.
