Ornate escape: A tour of Mexico's baroque architecture is a majestic prospect

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Baroque treasures: the St Francis Xavier church in Tepotzotlán

Put on a pair of sunglasses before entering the St Francis Xavier church in Tepotzotlán, a sleepy, dusty town 115 kilometres north of Mexico City. As soon as you pass inside, you are enveloped in a dazzling sea of gold; five towering altarpieces seem to strain under the weight of their lavish depictions of saints, angels and metaphor-laden motifs. When I visited, the shafts of mid-morning sun that streamed through the stained-glass windows were adding their own heavenly brilliance to the scene. Standing amid this glistening excess, it was not difficult to appreciate why this church is considered one of the finest examples of the Mexican Baroque style.

Baroque dominated much of the architecture of Europe throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. But once it had taken hold – first, in the Rome of the 1620s – it was also carried across oceans on Spanish galleons to the New World. Much of the style has survived. And while the sprawling Mexican capital can be a daunting prospect for the visitor, a tour of its baroque secrets proves the ideal navigational thread to explore the crowded streets.

My trail began downtown, in the heart of Mexico City's historic centre. After the Spanish arrived in 1519, a new city was built on what remained of the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. Unlike the audacious angles of the meso-Americans, the Spanish insisted on a regimented grid plan. It is here that you can find the largest concentration of the city's baroque remnants scattered throughout the cobblestone streets thronging with chilangos (natives of Mexico City) going about their daily business.

Both in Europe and the New World, the Catholic Church was quick to see the potential in the drama and scale of baroque as the perfect form of visual communication with its expanding congregations. Baroque became the dominant style of its architecture, sculpture, paintings and objects, and nowhere was this more the case than in Mexico.

Mexico City's spiritual and political heart is the Plaza de la Constitución, better known as the Zócalo. At its north-eastern end, you can survey what remains of the ancient city of Tenochtitlán. Built on Lake Texcoco in the early 14th century, it was once the centre of the mighty Aztec Empire, but is now reduced to a collection of seven ruined pyramids.

The north side of the square is anchored by the monolithic presence of the Metropolitan Cathedral, which was begun in 1573 and completed almost 250 years later. With its imposing twin bell towers and 14 side chapels, the cathedral is impressive in scale alone. But I had also come to inspect one of its baroque treasures, the Altar of the Kings. Spanning the entire end wall of the vast central nave, its overwhelming scale and elaborate decoration – one of the dominant themes of the style – were intended to help worshippers imagine the glory of heaven and attain a trance-like effect.

If the altar has few rivals in terms of size, you do not have to go far to view another impressive baroque sight. Beside the cathedral, the decrepit Sagrario Metropolitano displays its baroque legacy for all to see. Its crumbling, pollution-ravaged exterior is decorated in a vibrant Spanish Baroque style known as Churrigueresque, with a characteristic pattern of columns that look like inverted obelisks, called estipes.

The dusky pink and grey Señor de la Expiració*chapel is another of the city's baroque landmarks. It was completed in 1736 on the site of the first convent built in the New Spain. Close by on Justo Sierra, the 18th-century baroque façade of the former Jesuit college Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso gives way to tranquil, arcaded courtyards whose walls are adorned with murals by celebrated 20th-century social realist artists such as Diego Rivera, Jean Charlot and José Clemente Orozco.

The Palacio de Iturbide on Madero offers a rare glimpse inside one of the country's finest examples of domestic baroque architecture.

The erstwhile home of the first emperor of Mexico, Agustí*de Iturbide, this mansion was designed in the late 18th century by one of the most important architects of the period, Francisco Guerrero y Torres. It is also one of the last examples of the baroque style, before Neo-classicism began to take root in the city. Now a cultural centre and exhibition space, the Palacio has a distinctly Italian feel, with Tuscan arches surrounding a pretty internal central courtyard.

Nearby, in the enchanting 16th-century building and former hospital that now houses the Franz Mayer Museum, you can find one of the most important collections from Mexico's colonial period. A native of Germany but a long-time Mexican resident, Franz Mayer was a wealthy financier who amassed a vast collection of more than 10,000 decorative objects from Mexico, Europe and the Orient from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It offers an unparalleled number of baroque pieces among its ceramics, textiles, paintings, prints and furniture as well as one of the most important collections of Mexican silver and pottery.

One of the most distinctive elements of Mexican Baroque was the colour and exuberance instilled by Indian artists and craftsmen. The St Francis Xavier Church forms part of a much larger complex built by the Jesuits in 1572, which was one of its leading seminaries of the New Spain. It is a tranquil spot to ponder Mexico's colonial legacy – and now my pilgrimage in search of the baroque was coming to a glorious, gaudy finale.

In its conquest of the hearts and souls of the Indians, the Catholic Church showed a canny ability for integrating the pre-existing pagan traditions and motifs into the message of the new religion. Reached through an entrance off the St Francis Xavier Church, in the chapel of the Virgin of Lloret, all of these elements conspire together in one exuberant display. Every available inch of this tiny octagonal chapel is covered in a lavish stucco blanket of fruits, flowers, shells and figures with distinctly Indian features, adorned in an intense palette of reds, blues, yellows, greens and gold that are the colours commonly found in the decoration of pre-Hispanic archaeological sites. Its vividness and movement are overwhelming: a very Mexican twist to an old and influential style.

Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence is at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (020-7942 2000; vam.ac.uk) from today until 19 July. Open daily 10am-5.30pm (until 9.30pm on Fridays). Tickets (£11) can be ordered in advance from 0844 209 1770

Getting there

The writer travelled as a guest of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Mexico Tourism Board. Mexicana (0870 890 0040; mexicana.com) flies from Gatwick to Mexico City. British Airways (0844 493 0787; ba.com) flies from Heathrow.

Staying there

The Hotel de Cortés (00 52 55 5518 2181; boutiquehoteldecortes.com) at Avenida Hidalgo 85 is a boutique hotel tucked behind a florid baroque façade. Doubles from £125 including breakfast.

Visiting there

Catedral Metropolitana, Plaza de la Constitución (00 52 55 5510 0440).

Museo Franz Mayer, Av Hidalgo 45 (00 52 55 5518 2266; franzmayer.org.mx).

Colegio de San Ildefonso, Justo Sierra 16 (00 52 55 5702 6378; sanildefonso.org.mx).

Palacio de Iturbide, Madero 17 (00 52 55 1226 0233).

Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Plaza Hidalgo 99, Tepotzotlán (00 52 55 5876 0245; munavi.inah.gob.mx).

Further information

Mexico Tourism Board: 0800 652 0938; visitmexico.com.