In view of the dearth of information regarding the people who worked on Santa Prisca,
it must be admitted that Señor de la Borda's prohibition in this respect certainly
produced the desired result. It is therefore surprising to see the stanza of the north
tower with its allusion to Durán who appears to have been the architect mentioned.

The only inscription which gives any definitive and clear information
but which does not mention persons, is that which is to be found above the washbasin
in the sacristy in a carved gilt frame. It gives the exact date the work was completed
in these words: "It was finished on the third day of the twelfth month
of the fifty-eighth year of the Incarnation of the Divine World".

Since, as far as is known, work was begun on the church in 1751, the construction of
Santa Prisca took only seven years. In such a short space of time Don José de la Borda,
was able to build decorate and furnish this exceptionally expressive religious structure.

A most rewarding exploration of the topography of Taxco
is to be made from the forty meter tall towers of Santa Prisca.

From the church towers, to the north, and with Mount Huisteco as a backdrop,
one can see, standing out among covered galleries and tiled roofs going up in steps,
the tower of the Chavarrieta Chapel, the facade and dome of the former Monastery of
San Bernardino of Siena (today generally called ExConvento) and the high watch-tower
of the Town Hall in the Plazoleta de las Carnicerías, (today called La Plazuela Bernál).

The former Monastery was founded by Franciscan friars towards the end of the
Sixteenth Century and its construction was not finished until well into the beginning
of the following century. It was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1805
but was rebuilt in 1823. The architecture of the church is of a very good Neo-classic
style of the kind used by the famous architect Manuel Tolsa.

There is very little left of the Monastery of the last century.
The place has a certain historic interest because it is said
that an interview was arranged there
between Agustín de Iturbide and Vicente Guerrero
that was to change the destiny of Mexico.

The Chapel of Señor de Chavarrieta is so named
because the crucifix which was venerated there
since the Seventeenth Century
once belonged to Don Antonio de Chavarrieta.

It should be pointed out that the construction of this chapel
has been very modified by frequent repairs.
The strange little two-story square
that surrounds the chapel adds interest to the place.
A fountain and a cypress tree give great character to this little corner of Taxco.

To the east of the town center, there is a general view of the three-quarters of the
height and the whole of the width of the Atachi. This view allows one to appreciate the
marked unevenness that exists between some parts of the town and others
because of the very rolling surface. The difference is more than two hundred meters.

From the towers can be seen a maze of streets and alleys
cobbled with small, well placed stones.

These tortuous and steep-sloping streets form a complicated labyrinth,
rising steeply until they become lost in luxuriant forest
or turn into mule tracks which, since the days of the Viceroys,
have been bringing to Taxco laborers, milkmen and Indian charcoal vendors.

These men, their families and their droves of donkeys, fill the mountain roads and
paths on Saturdays and Sundays of each week going to and coming from the market.

It is interesting to see the arrival of these agile people, who look like little crystal
figures in showy bright clothes, on their way to the center of Taxco with their loads
of mountain fruit. From the belfries of Santa Prisca one can see without difficulty
the moving lines of muleteers and animals in any of the zig-zag sloping streets.

Guadalupe Street connects the Plaza Borda with the old
and thickly-populated district of Acayotla
with its chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Chapel was built in 1877 on the site occupied in 1735
by an oratory on one of the most prominent
of the hills forming the buttresses of the mountain.

Many visitors go there to look at Taxco from the little square
that serves it as a forecourt. From this place, oriented towards the east,
one obtains an incomparable panorama of Taxco.

When the sun is going down, it illuminates the rose-colored carved stone
of Santa Prisca and makes it stand out beautifully,
and seen thus from Guadalupe the baroque mass of the church
becomes animated and takes on surprising life and movement.

From the forecourt of Guadalupe it is possible to appreciate
the contrast that certain lights at that hour of the evening bring out
between Taxco and the lands which surround it on all sides.
Almost at the same height but more towards the west
there is another house of prayer, the Chapel of Señor de Ojeda (1822),
around which are clustered large numbers of houses.

It stands on a hill from which one obtains a different view
of the Spanish-style roofs than from the Santa Prisca towers.

A good time of day to enjoy this other, very beautiful, view is in the morning
at which time the sunlight coming from behind brings out Santa Prisca
in greater relief and gives brilliance and tonality to the reddish tiles of Taxco.

To get there one goes upwards along the winding Street of Ojeda, which begins in the
Plazuela de los Gallos a few yards above from the Plaza Borda (also called the Zócalo)

After passing what used to be the public warehouse, one arrives without much effort at
the Plazuela del Progreso and its fountain, from then on the street slopes more steeply,
turns rapidly in a slippery spiral and then, quite suddenly, without any warning,
arrives at the embankment of the Plazuela de Ojeda..

From both the Plazuela de Guadalupe and the Plazuela de Ojeda,
picturesque streets lead to the highest part of the Atachi,
crossing the place known as "Los Cazahuates"
which stands on a ridge of the mountain.

From here, the panorama over Taxco becomes larger until it disappears from view
on the far horizon, while in the opposite direction, one can just see the lands
that were once the "Royal of Mines" of Tenango (Taxco El Viejo) and, nearer,
on the edges of a closed, gay, green valley, arise the church and the houses of Landa.

In a thick forest one hour's journey from "Los Cazahuates",
one finds the springs of "El Arenal" which used to feed the "Old Dam".
The conduits that Señor de la Borda had built to improve the water service of Taxco

~ "very costly conduits of more than five hundred varas" ~ are still there.

From the Plazuela de Guadalupe, in a northerly direction,
there is a wide path leading to the Huisteco across a wild landscape.

Looking towards the South and downwards from the towers of Santa Prisca,
one sees within the Tetitlán ravine, the irregularly placed roofs of the market.

The high local color of the Taxco market on market days is typical of Mexico.
Sunday is market day but many peasants and their families and animals arrive
on Saturday and install themselves as close as possible to the shops and booths,
with their merchandise well in view.

Prices are discussed and sales made
amid the shouts of children and women's conversation,
especially on Sunday mornings.

The variety of the transactions include
the sale of herbs to ward off the evil eye and for rheumatism
the sale of pairs of "huarache" sandals, seed pod fruit, flowers,
cotton-cloth capes, aromatic pine gum incense, and pieces of painted pottery.

In Taxco market there are candies and gaudy-colored shaved ice
and other sweetmeats for young and old;
and, of course, there is pulque,
the fermented essence of the agave cactus.