The Basilica of Santa María de Guadalupe, officially called Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe (in English: Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe) is a basilica of the Catholic Church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her invocation of Our Lady of Guadalupe, located at the foot of the Hill of Tepeyac in the Gustavo A. Madero borough of Mexico City. It belongs to the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico through the Guadalupana Vicariate, which since November 4, 2018, is in the care of Monsignor Efraín Hernández Díaz, who has the title of general and episcopal vicar of Guadalupe and abbot of the basilica.
Every year some twenty million pilgrims visit the sanctuary, of which about nine million do so in the days around December 12, the day on which Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated. Annually, the Basilica of Santa María de Guadalupe has at least twice as many visitors as the best-known Marian shrines.]]
[[File:Guadalupe Basilica.jpg|thumb|right|Guadalupe Basilica postcard, 1923. University of Dayton Libraries.]]
The sanctuary at Tepeyac developed around the veneration of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the cloth image traditionally associated with Juan Diego's tilma and now enshrined in the basilica. In Catholic tradition, the image was miraculously imprinted on the tilma in 1531. The earliest surviving written witness to the apparition narrative is the 16th-century Nahuatl manuscript Nican Mopohua, while the first published account appeared in Miguel Sánchez's 1648 Imagen de la Virgen María.
The church now known as the Old Basilica of Guadalupe was built by the architect Pedro de Arrieta, its construction beginning in March 1695. On 1 May 1709, it opened with a solemn novena, and the image was transferred there at the dedication of the new sanctuary. In 1749 it received the title of collegiate church, meaning that, although it was not a cathedral, it had its own chapter and an abbot.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the construction of the nearby Capuchin convent contributed to serious damage to the church's walls and vaults, making repairs necessary and leading to a Neoclassical redecoration of the sanctuary in place of the earlier Baroque interior. Work began around 1804 and, with interruptions during the War of Independence, continued until 1836. The design was prepared by Agustín Paz and executed by the Neoclassicist architect Manuel Tolsá.
In 1904 the collegiate church was elevated to the rank of basilica. A bent metal crucifix associated with the explosion was preserved in the basilica, and repairs to the altar resulted in the image being placed about one meter higher.
During the Cristero War, after the suspension of public worship in 1926, the original image was secretly removed for safekeeping and replaced at the basilica by a copy painted by Rafael Aguirre. It was reinstalled in June 1929, shortly before public worship resumed.
Continuing subsidence in the old structure and the growing number of pilgrims led to the construction of the present basilica between 1974 and 1976. The image was transferred to the new basilica on 12 October 1976.
Religious complex of Tepeyac
The enclosure is made up of several churches and buildings, among which are those indicated below.
thumb|center|700px|Panoramic view of the Atrio de las Américas.
Capilla de Indios (Indian Chapel)
thumb|200px|right|Old Capilla de Indios.
It is a church built in 1649 by Luis Lasso de la Vega. According to tradition, it housed the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from 1695 to 1709 —the year in which it was transferred to the church known as the Old Basilica— and the standard of Miguel Hidalgo from 1853 to 1896. The name is due to the fact that this chapel was originally built for the cult of the indigenous population to the Virgin. The foundations of the first two churches dedicated to the Virgin that Friar Juan de Zumárraga ordered to be built in the place indicated by Saint Juan Diego, days after the declared apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, are preserved under it. From 1531 until his death in 1548, Juan Diego lived in this place (and his relics or remains are kept in the same place), in charge of taking care of the first place of worship.
Capilla del Cerrito
thumb|right|200px|Capilla del Cerrito, Tepeyac.
It is the parish where the miracle of fresh flowers and the first of the apparitions of Santa María de Guadalupe are remembered. A first chapel was built on the Tepeyac hill in 1666 by the will of Cristóbal de Aguirre and Teresa Pelegina. Around 1740,
Capilla del Pocito
thumb|200px|right|Capilla del Pocito
Temple located near the eastern slope of the Tepeyac hill. It was built from 1777 to 1791 and designed by the architect Francisco Guerrero y Torres.
Guadalupe Basilica Museum
thumb|right|200px|A painting from the colonial section of the museum of the Basilica of Guadalupe: The Guadalupan Assumption, c. 1731 by Anselmo López.
The museum, opened in 1941, in the north wing of Las Capuchinas Convent, houses an important collection of New Spanish art made up of nearly 4,000 cultural assets, many of them unique and unrepeatable, including paintings, sculptures, jewelry, gold and silver work, and others. It has works by the most important painters of New Spain, highlighting those of Cristóbal de Villalpando, Miguel Cabrera, Matías de Arteaga y Alfaro, Juan Correa, Juan Cordero, José de Ibarra, Sebastián López de Arteaga, Nicolás Rodríguez Juárez, Baltasar de Echave Ibía and José de Alcíbar. Its hall has more than 2,000 ex-votos dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe and is a space for temporary exhibitions.
Templo Expiatorio a Cristo Rey (Old Basilica of Guadalupe)
thumb|200px|left|Templo Expiatorio a Cristo Rey.
thumb|200px|left|Interior of the Old Basilica.
Its construction began with the laying of the first stone on March 25, 1695, and ended in April 1709.