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Cement, which does not allow the wall to breathe, is being replaced with lime plaster, a material similar to the original building materials. Lime plaster consists of lime, sand and cactus juice from nopal cactus.
The walls of the towers are 6 feet thick, the walls of the main structure 3 feet deep. From the beginning, San Xavier’s scale exceeded the financial resources of Catholic authorities to maintain or even finish it. The eastern tower lacks the dome and cupola of the western tower simply because the Franciscan friars ran out of money.
Xavier del Bac: “Del Bac” draws from both Spanish (Del translates to “of the”) and O'odham, the language of the indigenous peoples of the Sonoran Desert in southern and central Arizona (Bac translates to “place where the river appears in the sand,” referencing where the distillery sits along the Santa Cruz River).
The walls of the towers are 6 feet thick, the walls of the main structure 3 feet deep. From the beginning, San Xavier’s scale exceeded the financial resources of Catholic authorities to maintain or even finish it. The eastern tower lacks the dome and cupola of the western tower simply because the Franciscan friars ran out of money.
Xavier del Bac: “Del Bac” draws from both Spanish (Del translates to “of the”) and O'odham, the language of the indigenous peoples of the Sonoran Desert in southern and central Arizona (Bac translates to “place where the river appears in the sand,” referencing where the distillery sits along the Santa Cruz River).