MEXICO CITY – The earthquake struck in seconds, but three years later restorers still face a monumental task: about half of the 2,340 colonial-era buildings and churches damaged in the 2017 Mexico quake still need to be repaired, restored or partially rebuilt.It is a titanic challenge: crumbling old stone and lime mortar walls and domes, without an ounce of cement or rebar, have to be built back with the same ancient materials.
But that doesn’t mean the work is primitive. At the Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles church near downtown Mexico City, the restoration work has a space-age feel: towering curved metal support structures are delicately lowered into place by huge cranes, to support the half-collapsed dome of the church.