[1] Loreto is one of a number of churches in the historic district that the Archdiocese of Mexico says is in imminent danger of being lost due to structural damage from the uneven sinking.

[3] At the beginning of the 19th century, the Count of Bassoco decided to build a church dedicated to the Our Lady of Loreto, whose image was originally housed in the nearby Jesuit college of San Gregorio.

After the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish dominions, this image was moved from San Gregorio to the Convent of La Encarnación.

[1][4] On July 15, 1909, P. Wilfrido on behalf of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, took possession of the Temple of our Lady of Loreto.

[5] Loreto is one of the few churches in Mexico City that shows very strong Neoclassic design throughout, even though its basic layout is still Baroque.

This is because the Neoclassic had just begun to be in fashion in Mexico in the early 19th century, and Independence would put an end to major church-building in the capital.

[1][4] Its major feature is the exceptional size of its dome, the largest built in Mexico City during the colonial period.

[4] Another noticeable “feature” is that the ceiling of both the cupola and the nave are almost completely bare of decoration, as almost all of it has deteriorated due to humidity and cracking from the structure's uneven settling.

[4] The cupola was sealed against rain in 1995, and an attempt to revitalize the paintings of the church was done in 2001, spending a million pesos, but the artwork here still remains in very poor condition.

Its origins date back to a plan drawn up between 1556 and 1562 for the area attributed to Alonso de Santa Cruz.

However, there was little construction here and much of the area was used to dump garbage until the beginning of the 18th century, when a group of Carmelite nuns decided to build what became the Santa Teresa la Nueva convent.