Templo de dolores y perpetuo socorro aka Church of Pain and Perpetual Relief, a lesser known wonder of Monterrey

Are you wondering what is this place with so big name ? You can just call it as Templo de Dolores or Church of lady of Sorrows or Church of Pain ! It is not very far from downtown and located here . It is one of the oldest church's in monterrey built in 1908 as per the pic shown below.

Templo De dolores Monterrey

Origin of the name: 
There are various views on why the church got its name. Some believe that it might be related to Mother Mary/Virgin Mary as they used the term "Maria de los Dolores" /Mary of the sorrows 
to refer to Mother mary to refer to 7 sorrows she suffered for her son Jesus Christ. You see lots of images related to Mother mary, Jesus christ inside the church. Infact the painting in the main entrance of the church is dedicated to mother Mary . Coincidently the english term Mary of the Sorrows became famous to refer to Mother Mary during the initial decades of 19th century as a translated version of its spanish term !However exact historical references to confirm the same are not available as of now.

Maria de los dolores

Some also believe that this place was used as a place of shelter for the natives in the early part of 19th century who tried to save their lifes from attackers during Mexican revolution in Monterrey after the death of president Francisco Madero in 1913. However exact details about the same are yet to be found similar to first one(atleast to my research/info gathering so far)


Construction of Church:
Apart from entrance of church which shows its construction as 1908,some sources quote the historical references and state that the construction of this church completed in 1909 . It has 2 bell towers which is something strange here compared to single bell towered church at the center of downtown and other old churches of this locality. There are various details like how many famous personalities who visited here etc in the archives. Not going to so many details, let's directly enter the church and see what is interesting here.

Stained glass paintings: 
This church is known for its stained glass paintings and painted ceilings.  It might be better to walk through some of them instead of explaining about it. Localities believe that 8 of the total available stained glasses are preserved as they were when the church was built in 1908/09

It also has beautiful ceilings as i mentioned earlier and overall view is superb.

Local Market: 
one more reason to visit here is the local Market/Mercado Juarez which offers various spices and sweets/dulces which i have not seen in other parts of Monterrey. If you are an Indian and striving for some spices which you don't get in other parts of monterrey, it can be a places to visit once! Prices of vegetables are pretty much cheap as well

It has lots of Pinata and other local dolls as well

strings of Gralic which is something unique to this place !

A snap of us in Market next to the church